Is a 49% share price discount a bargain or a deterrent? Augmentum Fintech (AUGM) made some inroads arguing the former today as its shares gained 3p, or 3.7%, to 84.8p following encouraging half-year results. The company, which invests in private financial services companies in the UK and Europe, caught investors’ attention saying its £147m market […]
Update: Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA) and stablemate Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) want to merge, offering investors a 40% exit, but activist hedge fund Saba Capital, which owns around 30% of both investment trusts, is opposed. At a meeting yesterday, Saba was presented with the proposal, the product of advanced talks between the two boards of […]
Half-year results from Personal Assets (PNL), the £1.7bn absolute return fund, show its fund managers hiked the amount invested in equities by more than four percentage points in the half-year to 30 October, even as they prepared the defensive portfolio for a bursting in the US stock market bubble. Sebastian Lyon and Charlotte Yonge of Troy Asset Management said “somewhat paradoxically” they had increased equities from 36.7% to 41% in a […]
TR Property (TRY), the £1bn pan-European real estate fund, is on track to restoring dividend cover after seeing revenue rise 23% in the first half of its financial year. The 5%-yielder, which pays two dividends a year, lifted the interim payout to 5.75p per share up 1.8% from 5.65p a year ago. Revenue per share jumped 1.91p […]
Big Yellow (BYG) shares fell 6.5% in late trading yesterday on reports that Blackstone has walked away from talks over its proposed takeover of the UK’s largest self-storage business. In October the US investment group said it was at the “preliminary stage” of assessing whether to make an offer for a company with a then […]
Plans for Schiehallion (MNTN), the £1.1bn Baillie Gifford private equity fund, to become an investment trust hang in the balance after influential proxy vote adviser Institutional Shareholder Services recommended investors vote against the investment company at an extraordinary general meeting next week. Schiehallion, an investor in Tik-Tok owner ByteDance and SpaceX and other unquoted tech […]
Update: HICL Infrastructure (HICL) has pulled out of its proposed merger with InfraRed Capital stable mate The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) following an outcry from many shareholders. In a statement HICL said: “Both boards remain convinced of the strategic rationale for the combination. However, following broad engagement with shareholders, the HICL board determined that it […]
CT Private Equity (CTPE) fund manager Hamish Mair is to retire next May after running the investment trust for 26 years. Mair, who helped launch the then Martin Currie Capital Return Trust in 1999, will leave investment group Columbia Threadneedle and step down as CTPE’s lead manager after its annual general meeting. He will be […]
Activist Robert Naylor has taken over the wind-down of Aquila European Renewables (AERI) having been appointed chair on Friday to replace Ian Nolan who had served at the helm of the fund’s board since launch in 2019. Shares in the £141m renewables fund jumped from 35 euro cents to 37.3 at the news, narrowing their […]
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (FGEN) is on track to deliver covered full-year dividends of 7.96p per share, offering investors a 12% yield at the current depressed share price standing at a 37% discount to net asset value (NAV). Chair Ed Warner pointed to a more diverse portfolio than other renewables funds for a comparatively resilient performance […]
