British & American’s asset value (adjusted for the dilutive effects of the company’s preference share) fell from 88p to 78p over the year that ended on 31 December 2014. If the preference shares are valued at par the NAV fall was from 84p to 69p. The dividend was increased from 5.1p to 5.3p.
The report says that volatility in the price of their largest investment, Geron – a biotech stock, has also made the net asset value quite volatile. They say they still think the market is not pricing in Geron’s full potential and they intend to hold on to this investment. This was 23% of the fund last June – it isn’t obvious how big it was at the end of the year – that info should be in the annual report – but Geron is up by a third since then.
BAF : Geron driving British & American NAV