This year’s summer lull is a bit busier than usual with Warehouse Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) publishing a prospectus and running around trying to raise £80 million to £150 million to buy a portfolio of multi-let urban warehouse estates. I have been occupied on a new guide for investors interested in listed private equity […]
Investors’ insatiable appetite for income has pushed many innovative income funds to lofty premiums, but a host of opportunities remain. Jennifer Hill outlines five routes to pocket in flation-beating income. Investors are on the hunt for alternative sources of income, given the high valuations of many equity markets and poor value in bonds. ‘We’ve been looking […]
A recent comparison of open-ended funds versus closed-ended investment companies suggests the latter are losing their edge on charges, but compelling reasons remain to opt for investment trusts, writes Jennifer Hill. Investment trusts have long been seen to offer superior performance to funds thanks to their ability to ‘gear’ investments, hold a fixed pool of […]
James Carthew: how the two social housing Reits compare Triple Point Social Housing (SOHO) is one of the recent crop of new issues in the burgeoning housing real estate investment trust (Reit) sub-sector. It raised £200 million in an oversubscribed issue at a time when rival launches struggled to meet their targets and some were […]
Have equity income funds had their day? – Merry Somerset Webb on QuotedData research In the 1950s, the point of investing was simple. It was, says John Littlewood in his book, The Stock Market: 50 Years of Capitalism at Work, “to provide assets to match as closely as possible the liabilities stretching years into the […]
James Carthew: Witan paves way for debt-laden Merchants One headline that caught my eye last week was Witan (WTAN) announcing it had borrowed £30 million at a rate of 2.74% fixed for 37 years. I think that might be a record, in terms of time to maturity, for the investment companies sector. For most of […]
This week’s topic is LXI Reit (LXI), one of a small band of real estate investment trusts whose raison d’etre is they invest in assets let on long leases. The first to launch in 2014 and by far the largest with a market value of £823 million is Secure Income Reit (SIR). It owns properties that […]
James Carthew: the relentless rise of new income funds Investors are still pouring money into UK property, despite last year’s post-referendum jitters. If we look at the money raised by the investment companies sector in July, I reckon that of £1.2 billion raised, about £500 million was destined for UK property funds. This included new […]
ESO: the private equity fund lighting up an overlooked sector Private equity investment trusts have not been left behind by this year’s stock market rally with their shares up an average 18%. One fund often overlooked in this still neglected sector is EPE Special Opportunities (ESO), an £86 million, AIM-listed, Isle of Man based investment […]
James Carthew: HICL paid high price for Affinity This week’s column was written before the announcement of HICL leading a consortium to buy the HS1 high-speed rail line between London and the Channel Tunnel. My focus this week is on HICL Infrastructure (HICL), a stock that I hold. Briefly, around the beginning of July, its […]
