Aquila European Renewables (AERI), a £176m investment company two years into a difficult wind-down, has agreed to sell its Danish and Greek wind assets (Holmen II, Svindbaek and Desfina) to its fund manager Aquila Capital for €61.9m, a 17% discount to their valuation at 30 June. Together with the €16.5m sale of its minority investment in […]
Manchester and London (MNL), the £303m technology forced to suspend share buybacks last month in a bid to protect its investment trust status, has announced a dramatic hike in its dividends to shore up shareholder returns. Chair Dan Wright said the company would pay at least 40p in annual dividends for the next five years […]
Polar Capital Global Healthcare (PCGH) has effectively set a 40% limit on the forthcoming 100% exit it is offering shareholders as part of its eight-year reconstruction. Although shareholders in the top-performing £458m investment trust will be free to sell all their shares in the tender offer next month, the company has set a minimum of […]
Aberdeen Asia Focus (AAS), a £519m smaller companies investment trust, has marked its 30th anniversary with a small name change and a big rise in its annual return. Out goes the silly Abrdn moniker following its fund manager’s welcome rebranding and in comes news of a 20.3% underlying investment return that smashed the 7.6% return […]
HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE) has reported robust half-year results with net asset value (NAV) per share rising 6.2% to a record $57.55 (£47.10) in the six months to 31 July. This was supported by portfolio valuation gains of 5.6%, with infrastructure (+11.4%) and European holdings (+13.4%) leading the way. Realisations, or sales, totalled $142m […]
An excited crowd of fund managers, directors, journalists and PR folk assembled at the Guardian Royal Exchange in the City of London last week for QuotedData’s second annual investment companies awards. Corks popped and champagne flowed as the winners of our 14 awards were announced. Everyone likes to be told they’re the best. What […]
Barings Emerging EMEA Opportunities (BEMO) has passed the continuation vote it called this month when back tracking on a commitment to hold a 25% tender offer. However, the £94m emerging markets investment trust will have to make peace with one of its largest shareholders after just over 33% of shares in yesterday’s general meeting in […]
Macau Property Opportunities (MPO), the £34m real estate fund trying to complete a lengthy wind-up in the China region’s prolonged slowdown, is considering an emergency share issue to resolve a cash flow crisis. The company, which in August reported a 23.5% slump in net asset value in the three months to 30 June, said the […]
Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has delivered on its commitment to overhaul its board a month after a row over the disclosure of £10.6m additional fees to its fund manager. The battery fund has appointed two experienced investment company directors, Norman Crighton and Angus Gordon Lennox, and said its current chair and senior independent director […]
Middlefield Canadian Income (MCT) will start its new life as an actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) with just over £75m, it was confirmed today. The £150m investment trust said 52.7% of its shares would roll over into the ETF that will start trading on Thursday with the remainder receiving cash as they exit. Middlefield was […]
John Scott, the outgoing chair of Bluefield Solar Income (BSIF), has warned shareholders in the renewables fund that the “business as usual” option is unavailable as he held out the prospect of the double-digit yielder merging with its fund manager Bluefield Partners and cutting its payout. Delivering his last annual report, Scott said the £493m […]
Life sciences fund Syncona (SYNC) has withdrawn plans for a managed wind-down and will instead focus on returning £250m of capital to shareholders. Following consultation with its biggest shareholders on its strategic options, Syncona Investment Management (SIML) will, however, continue to launch a new private fund for institutions once the board of the listed investment […]
Mobius (MMIT), the £166m emerging markets smaller companies investment trust, proposes moving its triennial 100% redemption facility to two-yearly once the next redemption in December is complete. That would mean the next exit opportunity would be in 2027. James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, commented: “As I have said before, I think […]
Mercantile (MRC), the £1.8bn UK mid-cap equities investment trust run by JPMorgan’s Guy Anderson and Anthony Lynch, underperformed in the half-year to 31 July with its 6% investment and total shareholder returns both trailing the 7.2% return from the FTSE All-Share excluding the top 100 blue chips and all investment trusts. Performance was bolstered by […]
RTW Biotech Opportunities (RTW) is to extend share buybacks by $15m (£11m) following a flurry of four bids for portfolio companies since 30 June. This is in addition to the $24.2m of capital the £397m investment trust has returned to shareholders through share repurchases since launching a $30m buyback programme in 2023. The updated capital […]
Seraphim Space (SSIT) saw its largely unquoted portfolio of space commercialisation companies rise by 28.9%, or £58.3m, to £259.8m in the year to 30 June. The strong underlying performance was helped by a doubling in the value of ICEYE, the satellite constellation provider that accounted for 37.4% of net assets at the financial year-end, which […]
Home REIT inches towards a relisting of its suspended shares with publication of its delayed 2024 results; Sirius Real Estate makes another big acquisition in Germany; and Montanaro European Smaller Companies will hold its first semi-annual tender offer next month. Home REIT (HOME), the former homeless accommodation provider subject to a regulatory probe over an […]
By the time the concept of speed dating emerged, I had settled down, so the whole idea had passed me by, that was, until last week. In a format more often associated with romance than finance, a small group that included journalists, and analysts such as me, were given the opportunity to sit down with […]
Crystal Amber Fund (CRS) has reported further progress in its wind-down strategy for the year ended 30 June 2025, highlighted by a successful exit from De La Rue and regulatory approval for its key holding Morphic Medical Inc (MMI). After £9.1m of share buybacks and a £1.4m net loss, total NAV declined to £116.2m from […]
Hg, the manager of HgCapital Trust (HGT), has agreed the sale of GTreasury, which it describes as a global leader in adaptable treasury solutions for the Office of the CFO, to Ripple, the digital asset infrastructure group, in a transaction valuing GTreasury at over US$1 billion. The deal, which remains subject to customary regulatory approvals, […]
Bellevue Healthcare Trust (BBH) has published a circular and notice of general meeting to seek shareholder approval for renewed authority to repurchase its own shares in support of its zero discount policy. The policy, introduced in April 2025, aims to ensure the trust’s share price trades close to net asset value (NAV) in normal market […]
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income (SEQI), the £1.2bn high yielding debt fund, has finally drawn a line under the collapse of Bulb Energy that contributed to a derating in its shares four years ago. In its monthly valuation update the investment company said “successful settlements in the full recoverability” of the £55m secured loan to Bulb […]
UK smaller companies funds Strategic Equity Capital and JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income made little overall headway in their latest financial years but express confidence that their sector offers “compelling” returns in future. Strategic Equity Capital (SEC), the £161m UK smaller companies investment company that saw 22% of shares tendered this month, had […]
Biotech Growth (BIOG) is ploughing on with share buybacks in the hope investors will soon sit up and notice the startling recovery in its shares. Since early April, when the investment trust had tumbled to more than a six-year low on Trump tariff fears, the shares have shot up 77%, lifting its market valuation to […]
Last month was a great one for investment companies exposed to gold, biotechnology, emerging markets and corporate actions aimed at restoring shareholder value. Infrastructure fund prospects look less than golden with high interest rates and declining power price forecasts, but one £422m renewables portfolio perhaps deserves a closer look with shares on a wide 35% […]
Strategic Equity Capital (SEC), a UK smaller companies fund managed by Ken Wotton at Gresham House, has avoided a damaging exodus by investors but will have to soldier on with a diminished portfolio after 22%, or 9.5m, of its shares were tendered in this month’s 100% tender offer. That leaves the investment company with £142.8m […]
British Land reports a strong start to its financial year; Renewables Infrastructure Group signs a power supply contract with Virgin Media O2; plus news from Oakley Capital Investments, EJF Investments, RTW Biotech Opportunities, Abrdn Asia Focus, Sirius Real Estate, Great Portland Estate and Sequoia Economic Infrastructure. British Land (BLND) shares gain 5.6% to 382.8p in […]
The long period of poor performance by Nick Train’s £1.1bn UK equity income trust presents a challenge ahead of a shareholder continuation vote in January. Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) fund manager Nick Train has vowed to make no changes to his investment process after the investment trust fell to a loss for the year […]
Target Healthcare (THRL), a £580m investor in care homes, is lobbying the government to reconsider its proposed ban on upward only rent reviews in leases made in July. “Whilst aimed at retail properties, this has the potential for significant unintended consequences elsewhere,” even if legislation was not retrospective the real estate investment trust said. “We […]
Oakley Capital Investments (OCI), the £965m investor in Oakley Capital’s private equity funds, is investing £10m in ONHC, an Italian specialist private healthcare insurance services provider, as part of a bigger investment by the fund manager. OCI’s investment is being made through Oakley Capital Fund V alongside chief executive Filippo Ceppellini, who founded the company […]
