Shareholders in Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA) have voted 52.8% to 47.2% against Saba Capital’s resolutions to appoint three of its nominees to the board, with a similar majority backing the existing directors led by chair Tom Burnet. Excluding hedge funds Saba and Sessa Capital, who held over 29% and nearly 8% of the shares […]

The Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA) annual general meeting is over with shareholders waiting on the board to declare whether Saba’s third attempt to gain control has been successful. An announcement is expected this afternoon once the last remaining votes have been counted. The USA and Baillie Gifford camp were tight lipped as to the […]

Executive Summary The KOSPI has achieved a remarkable re-rating in 2026, reaching a new all-time high above 8,000 and returning +29% in May alone. Yet beneath the headline figures lies a tale of two markets. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix now account for c. 53% of the KOSPI index and have driven the overwhelming bulk […]

A modest allocation to overseas stocks, including three US tech companies, failed to boost half-year returns at BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC) as the trust continues to suffer from poor investor sentiment to its asset class. Although boosted by its merger in April with stablemate BlackRock Throgmorton, the now £632m investment trust had a disappointingly flat […]

Marwyn Value Investors (MVI), the Cayman Islands fund that employs a private equity style “buy and build” strategy to UK smaller companies, has published a circular detailing its 2026 realisation share offer. This is the third such offer since the investment company started giving shareholders five-yearly opportunities to switch from the MVI ordinary shares into […]

The Financial Conduct Authority has said that its decision to close its inquiry into the Home REIT (HOME) scandal represented its view that it was better to divert its resources to helping the Serious Fraud Office in the criminal investigation that saw police make six arrests earlier this year. “We have carefully considered the case […]

FTSE Russell is considering a major overhaul of its US growth and value indices, as the increasing dominance of a handful of technology giants threatens to undermine the distinction between the two investment styles. Since their introduction in 1987, the Russell indices have divided the market capitalisation of their parent indices equally between growth and […]

HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE) has launched the $400m (£298m) tender offer that enabled it to comfortably pass its first continuation vote with the support of activists Saba and Asset Value Investors in July. The £2.2bn investment company said the “unprecedented” return of capital, the largest by a London-listed private equity fund, would enable shareholders […]

Aberdeen Asia Focus (AAS), the top-performing Asia smaller companies trust, delivered a 22.3% investment return in the year to 31 July. The leap in net asset value (NAV) underpinned a 23.9% for shareholders and beat the 9.5% rise in the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap index. The strong annual result under Aberdeen managers […]

Home REIT (HOME) says the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has closed its investigation and intends to take no further action against the company that remains the subject of a Serious Fraud Office probe. The news come more than two-and-a-half years after the City regulator announced in February 2024 that it had begun an investigation into […]

Duke Capital (DUKE), the high-yielding AIM-listed business lender, has issued a trading update after its share price fell 18% yesterday. DUKE shares slid 4.8p from 26.3p to 21.5p on Tuesday after a post on bulletin board ADVFN highlighted the latest loss-making 2025 accounts of Intec Business Holdings. This morning they shed 0.5p in early trading […]

Indonesia has moved to overhaul its main stock market index after MSCI threatened to remove the country from its emerging-market classification, potentially forcing ETFs tracking its indices to sell billions of dollars of Indonesian shares. The Indonesia Stock Exchange has announced plans to exclude around 80 companies with highly concentrated share ownership from the Jakarta […]

Great Portland Estates (GPE) plans to redevelop its Soho Square Estate. The 90,000 sq ft development will include 75,000 sq ft of high-quality Grade A offices and 15,000 sq ft of prime retail space fronting Oxford Street. Demolition is expected to commence shortly, with completion targeted for summer 2030. Piers Blewitt, GPE’s director of development […]

River UK Micro Cap (RMMC) has reappointed Liontrust as investment manager after securing the services of two of its best-known fund managers, Anthony Cross and Hugh Sergeant, on a sharply reduced fee. RMMC had been expected to follow George Ensor and Mayan Uthayakumar who announced in July they were leaving Liontrust to join Jupiter Asset […]

Silence Therapeutics, one of the few UK-based holdings of International Biotechnology Trust (IBT), has been acquired by German drugs giant Merck for $1.3bn cash. News of the agreed deal yesterday saw Silence’s US Nasdaq-listed shares soar 125%, or $10.90, to $19.58, just below the $20 shareholders will receive when the deal closes early next year. […]

CT UK Capital and Income has changed its name to CT Progressive Income (with an unchanged ticker of CTUK) as it looks to raise its profile with a new target of paying dividends ahead of inflation. The £327m, 3.7%-yielding investment trust is an Association of Investment Companies’ “dividend hero” having consistently increased its pay-outs each […]

LondonMetric Property (LMP) has exchanged on the sale of the first office it bought in the joint takeover of Picton Property Income with Schroder Real Estate (SREI) last month. The all-share bid brought in £307m of assets for LMP, 83% of which are in its core area of logistics warehouses, and £24m cash. In a […]

Montanaro European Smaller Companies (MTE) has launched its third tender offer in 16 months, giving shareholders the opportunity to sell 5% of its shares back to the company at a 5% discount to net asset value (NAV). Shares in the £202m investment trust managed by George Cooke and Stefan Fischerfeier currently stand 8.7% below NAV. […]

Primary Health Properties (PHP) is to release £500m of cash for debt repayment after forging a joint venture (JV) with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. The 50-50 strategic partnership will invest in private hospital infrastructure with PHP serving as property and asset manager.  PHP will seed the JV with its portfolio of 27 private hospitals […]

US Solar Fund (USF) has given its potential buyer a second extension to complete due diligence on a portfolio whose 42 assets it has been assessing for five months. The £115m investment trust, whose portfolio was stabilised by Amber Infrastructure Group when it replaced New Energy Solar Manager as investment adviser in December 2023, said […]

AVI Japan Opportunity Trust (AJOT) has launched its third uncapped annual tender offer, giving shareholders a chance to sell all their shares at a 2% discount to the value of its investments if they wish. Given the shares currently stand around 2% below net asset value (NAV), there is likely to be limited demand for […]

Saba Capital’s Boaz Weinstein and former Devon Equity Management chief executive Richard Pavry have joined the board of SDCL Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT). At a general meeting last Thursday Weinstein and Pavry were appointed as non-executive directors with just over 84% of votes on a 42.5% turnout. The £374m investment trust was put into managed […]

Janus Henderson has launched a US equity ETF with a total expense ratio (TER) of 0%, entering the increasingly competitive market for low-cost passive investment products. The Janus Henderson US Large Cap Equity Core UCITS ETF (J501) listed on the London Stock Exchange on 9 October and tracks the Solactive GBS United States 500 Index, […]

Schroder Oriental Income Fund (SOI) has been shortlisted in the Best country / regional / emerging category of QuotedData’s 2026 Investors’ Choice Awards. With voting now underway, we take a closer look at what makes this Asian equity income trust stand out and why it might deserve your vote. Asia is home to some of […]

Interview with Brown Advisory, EdgePoint and Sands In our latest edition of The Big Question, Mick Dillon, Tye Bousada and Danielle Menichella delve further into the realm of AI to discuss where AI disruption is likely to emerge, which industries could be the biggest winners and losers, and whether the market is getting the AI […]

Caution towards the surge in technology stocks by the managers of Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) saw the £377m Asia Pacific smaller companies investment trust underperform in the year to 31 July. Although Fidelity’s Nitin Bajaj and Ajinkya Dhavale did very well holding Taiwanese chip giant TSMC as their  biggest position, a decision to underweight tech […]

JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income (JUGI) has reported a year of underperformance ahead of its merger with Aberdeen UK Smaller Companies Growth (AUSC). A lack of mining stocks and the AI sell-off in software stocks were the main factors in the £419m investment trust’s 7.2% investment return lagging the 9.8% gain in the […]

Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT), the underperforming UK equity income trust run by Nick Train, had a “challenging” September with net asset value (NAV) and the share price falling 7.9% and 7.8% against a 1.9% decline in the FTSE All-Share index. Despite that, both NAV and shares outperformed in the third quarter with respective gains […]