JPMorgan Private Equity looking to create realisation shares after a ‘notable period’

JPMorgan Private Equity has announced its interim results for the six-months ended 31 December 2015, a period which the company describes as being ‘notable’. Specifically, proposals were announced to move the management contract to an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC (this transaction was completed after the period-end on 11 March 2016.) The company also retired its 2015 ZDP shares in October 2015 (£58.6m), which saw overall leverage reduced to 16.5% of total assets. In terms of performance, JPEL’s NAV per US$ Equity Share decreased by 0.5% from $1.27 to $1.26 during the period, whilst the price of its US$ Equity Shares decreased by 6.0% from $1.00 to $0.9425, during the same reflecting a widening of its discount during the period (JPEL is currently trading on a discount of approximately 25%.) Unfortunately, the report does not provide much information on the drivers of the underlying performance so this cannot be detailed here.

JPEL Shareholders approved a special resolution at the 2014 Annual General Meeting which provided for the creation of Realisation Shares. However, the Board of Directors determined that it would be in the best interests of the Company and its Shareholders as a whole to delay the implementation of the conversion of US$ Equity Shares into Realisation Shares by those US$ Equity Shareholders electing to do so, to allow for the investment management team’s transition to FIG to fully take effect. However, now that this process has been completed, The Board says that it now intends to submit a prospectus to the United Kingdom Listing Authority (“UKLA”) regarding the implementation of the Realisation Share Class by the end of March 2016 and release it to shareholders as soon as practicable.

JPMorgan Private Equity looking to create realisation shares after a ‘notable period’ : JPEL