Overview
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Investment Trust PLC seeks to provide investors with long-term capital growth through a concentrated portfolio of 12-18 UK listed companies that typically have a market capitalisation of below £150 million (at the time of investment). We define these as micro-caps. The Trust intends to take an influential, strategic position (a 3% – 25% equity stake) in each underlying business.
You can access the fund’s website here
Research History
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26 Apr 2024 11 min read
QuotedData’s Investment Companies Quarterly Review – First quarter of 2024
First quarter of 2024 Investment Companies | Quarterly roundup | April 2023 Kindly sponsored by abrdn Equity rally belies difficult quarter for sector 2024 started on strong footing, with global equities (as measured by the MSCI All Countries World Index) rallying 9.2% over the first three months (in sterling terms). However, while there some standouts […]
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07 Jun 2019 5 min read
QuotedData’s economic roundup – June 2019
Economic & Political Roundup A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the […]
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22 Mar 2019 1 min read
QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – March 2019
QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – March 2019 is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of February 2019. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. JPMorgan Chinese, Fidelity China and Pacific Horizon benefited from a booming Chinese market in […]
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19 Dec 2018 1 min read
QuotedData’s economic roundup – December 2018
QuotedData’s economic roundup – December 2018 is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any […]
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18 Jan 2018 1 min read
QuotedData – 2017 review of the year
QuotedData – 2017 review of the year – Many commentators, including us, were wary going into 2017. In the event, economic growth and markets surprised on the upside: US markets hit new highs despite three interest rate rises. Perceived low/no growth areas such as Europe and Japan burst into life. Asia’s technology stocks surged. India’s […]
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11 Dec 2017 1 min read
QuotedData’s economic round up – December 2017
QuotedData’s economic round up – December 2017 – is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or […]
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14 Jun 2017 1 min read
QuotedData investment companies roundup – June 2017
QuotedData investment companies roundup – June 2017 – is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of May 2017. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. June Investment Companies Roundup Japan was one of the best places to be […]
News
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23 Oct 2024 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 23 October 2024 – HOME, DSM, PPET, AIE, BEMO
In QuotedData’s morning briefing on 23 October 2024: Home REIT (HOME) announced that it has sold a further 152 properties at auction for a total of £26.8m. Following the completion of these sales, it has sufficient proceeds to fully repay the outstanding Scottish Widows loan, which amounted to £72.0m as at 30 September 2024. It […]
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22 Aug 2024 1 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 22 August 2024 – JAGI, MIGO, DSM
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 22 August 2024: Pauline Ng has become an additional named portfolio manager for JPMorgan Asia Growth & Income (JAGI), working alongside co-managers Robert Lloyd and Ayaz Ebrahim. Pauline joined JPMorgan Asset Management in 2005 and is a country specialist for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) equities and head of […]
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14 Aug 2024 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 14 August 2024 – HOME, HMSO, DSM, NESF, RCOI
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 14 August 2024: Home REIT says that it has reached an agreement with Mansit Housing CIC, a non-performing tenant, for the surrender of its leases on 68 properties. The majority of the properties are occupied by private rented sector tenants on Assured Shorthold Tenancies. This should boost Home REIT’s rental income. […]
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18 Jul 2024 1 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 18 July 2024 – OIT, ESO, SEQI, DSM, HICL
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 18 July 2024: Odyssean Investment Trust (OIT) raised £11.4m from its placing and retail offer (the latter made through Winterflood’s WRAP platform). 6,542,159 new shares will be issued at 174p each (NAV plus 1%), 361,041 of those were to the retail offer. [This isn’t too bad in the current environment, although, […]
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08 Jul 2024 3 min read
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) updates on EGM requisition
On 18 June 2024, the board of Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) announced that it had received a request to requisition a general meeting from Vidacos Nominees Limited, acting as nominee of Milkwood Capital Limited (Milkwood) – click here to see our coverage. As it said at that time, DSM’s board considers that Milkwood’s decision to […]
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19 Jun 2024 4 min read
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap requisitioned by Milkwood Capital
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) has announced that, on 17 June 2024, its board of directors of DSM received a letter from Vidacos Nominees Limited acting as nominee of Milkwood Capital Limited (Milkwood), seeking to requisition a general meeting of DSM. DSM’s board has said that it is in the process of reviewing the legal validity […]
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31 May 2024 1 min read
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap to pay special from FireAngel sale proceeds
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) has announced that, following an agreed and approved bid for one of its holdings, FireAngel Safety Technology Group Plc, intends to return the value of its investment in FireAngel to shareholders as soon as possible, via a third special dividend, in line with its stated intention of returning cash to shareholders. […]
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05 Apr 2024 1 min read
QuotedData’s weekly news show 5th April 2024
Thank you to everyone that listened in today, whether you watched the Zoom live or on YouTube. In this week’s show, James Carthew covered the week’s top stories: • JPMorgan American (0:48) • Downing Strategic Micro Cap (6:55) • Fidelity Emerging (11:18) Andrew highlighted the opportunity in commodity trusts and in renewables (14:03) This week’s […]
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04 Apr 2024 2 min read
Milkwood seeks to block Downing Strategic wind up
Since February, two institutional shareholders, who were supportive of Downing Strategic’s managed wind-down, and who had voted in favour of adopting that investment policy, sold their holdings to Milkwood, an investor opposed to the managed wind-down. Milkwood now has a 28% stake in the company. Downing Strategic was planning to return cash to shareholders via […]
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28 Dec 2023 1 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 28 December 2023 – DSM
In QuotedData’s morning briefing for 28 December 2023: The board of Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Investment Trust (DSM) has provided an update on its plans to return capital to shareholders. The board had previously concluded that the best option would be a managed wind down of the investment portfolio. Having worked closely with the investment manager, […]
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10 Nov 2023 1 min read
QuotedData’s weekly news update 10th November 2023
Thank you to everyone that listened in today, whether you watched the Zoom live, on Facebook or on YouTube. In this week’s show, James Carthew and Richard Williams covered the week’s top stories: • Downing Strategic Micro Cap • UK Commercial Property/ Picton This week’s interview was with Craig Martin from Vietnam Holding – watch […]
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09 Nov 2023 2 min read
Downing Strategic will commence managed wind down
The board and manager of Downing Strategic Micro-Cap have decided that, with the continuing negative sentiment towards smaller companies and small investment trusts, it is timely to begin a managed wind-down of the company, with the intention to make the first return to shareholders of at least 20% of capital in early 2024. This will […]
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12 Jun 2023 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 12 June 2023
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 12 June 2023: As of 7:30 today, The FCA has suspended the shares of abrdn Latin American Income Fund at the request of the trust. This is part of the trust intention to be wound up, as was announced on 18 May 2023. Syncona (SYNC) has announced the launch of a […]
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09 May 2023 3 min read
Solid outperformance for DSM despite negative returns
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Investment Trust (DSM) announced the company’s results for the year ended 28 February 2023. The company saw a 8.7% decrease in NAV per share and 9.7% decrease in the share price, compared to a 17.4% decrease in the FTSE AIM All-Share TR index over the 12 months to 28 February 2023, driven […]
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09 Jan 2023 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 9 January 2023
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 9 January 2023: Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) has announced a cash exit facility, share buybacks, and subsequent strategic review. The board has previously announced its intention to offer shareholders a 50% share redemption opportunity in May 2024 at NAV. Should the cash exit facility be fully subscribed and, as a result, […]
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09 May 2022 2 min read
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap on journey to grow as it publishes good results
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap on journey to grow as it publishes good results – Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) has posted its final results for the year ended 28 February 2022. During the period under review, the trust saw a 5.3% increase in its NAV and 1% increase in its share price . It maintained its NAV […]
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01 Nov 2021 3 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 1 November 2021
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 1 November 2021: Murray Income (MUT) has entered into a three-year multi-currency revolving credit facility of £50m with The Bank of Nova Scotia, London Branch, which replaces the Company’s £20m facility with Scotiabank Europe PLC. Under its terms, MUT has the option to increase the level of the commitment to £70m […]
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10 May 2021 3 min read
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap sees further headroom for UK small-cap following several years of underdog role
Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) reported annual results to 28 February 2021, with the portfolio delivering a 26% increase in NAV and the shareholder return coming in at 22%. ‘We believe that the portfolio sits at a 43% discount to its intrinsic value’ DSM’s manager, Judith MacKenzie, had this to say: “I said back at the time of the Interim […]
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02 Nov 2020 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 2 November 2020
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 2 November 2020 – Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) reported interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2020. The NAV increased by 22.5% from the March 2020 low-point, but was down 5.5% over the period, on a per-share basis. Chairman, Hugh Aldous, noted the following: “I said in May that we […]
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04 May 2020 1 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 4 May 2020
Some encouraging signs from around the world, with countries ranging from Italy, Portugal, Thailand and Nigeria, beginning to ease lockdowns. NB Private Equity Partners (NBPE) agreed with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company to increase the existing credit facility by $50m to $300m. Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) reported annual results to 29 February 2020, with the […]
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11 Nov 2019 1 min read
QuotedData’s other news 11 November
In QuotedData’s other news 11 November – Civitas Social Housing (CSH), the real estate investment trust (REIT) dedicated to investing into regulated social housing across the UK, will report half year results for the period ended 30 September 2019 on Monday 2 December 2019. Yew Grove REIT (YEW), which owns a diversified portfolio of Irish […]
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14 Oct 2019 1 min read
QuotedData’s other news 14 October 2019
In QuotedData’s other news 14 October 2019 – Downing Strategic Micro-Cap noted that with reference to the announcement of 27 September 2019, the board announces that the resignation of Mr Andrew Griffiths, a non-executive director of the company took effect from Friday 11 October 2019. Elsewhere, Aberdeen New Thai reported solid interim results, benefiting from the […]
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03 May 2019 2 min read
Downing Strategic Micro says underlying discount growing
Downing Strategic Micro says underlying discount growing – the NAV per share dropped by almost 20% over the year to the end of February 2019. The shares moved from trading at a small premium to a small discount. There will be a dividend of 1.25p, payable from earnings of 1.5p. There are 13 companies in […]
Upcoming Events
Videos
In The Press
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21 Feb 2025 1 min read
Final curtain for Downing Strategic Micro-Cap
By Jennifer Hill, Citywire Investment Trust Insider, 21 February 2025: The curtain has finally fallen on Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM), the UK smaller companies trust that is now worth little over £2m. At a general meeting, 98.3% of shareholders voted to liquidate the portfolio, with just 1.7% voting against.. It is a far cry from […]
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18 Dec 2023 1 min read
Investment trust insider on 2023
Investment trust insider on 2023 – James Carthew: Dramatic 2023 leaves sector radically different The rationalisation of the sector continues. There has been a flurry of announcements over the past couple of weeks: Abrdn Diversified Income and Growth (ADIG) announced a managed wind down; Triple Point Energy Transition (TENT) declared it will begin an orderly […]
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03 Oct 2022 1 min read
The UK trusts trading on the widest discounts relative to their recent history
By Tom Aylott, Reporter, Trustnet, 30 September 2022: Those holding UK trusts over the past decade could have seen a sizable return on their investment, with the IT UK Equity Income and IT UK All Companies sectors up 83.8% and 69.5% respectively, according to data from QuotedData. But it is the trusts in the IT […]
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22 Nov 2021 1 min read
The UK trusts on the biggest discount or premiums relative to their history
By Eve Maddock-Jones, Reporter, Trustnet, 19 November 2021 Trustnet looks at which UK investment trusts are trading below their five year average discount/premium level and which ones are running well ahead of the norm. Several UK investment trusts are running well below their five-year-average discount presenting major buying opportunities, according to fund pickers. The pandemic […]
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25 Feb 2020 1 min read
What does the future hold for investment trust activism?
Lauren Mason for Investment Week What does the future hold for investment trust activism? – QuotedData’s James Carthew shares his views An active year for trust boards According to NAVF’s website, the management team will pursue “multiple activist strategies” including communication with management teams and boards, putting company representatives on the board of investee companies, […]
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07 May 2019 1 min read
Investment trust insider on BlackRock Smaller and Downing Strategic Micro Cap
Investment trust insider on BlackRock Smaller and Downing Strategic Micro Cap – James Carthew: BlackRock and Downing show the two sides to small-cap investing Both BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC) and Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) reported results last Friday. The two UK small-cap trusts had very different years. Both lost money – it would have been quite […]
