Barings Emerging EMEA Opportunities (BEMO) has taken the controversial decision not to proceed with a conditional 25% tender offer that it committed to five years ago, saying to buy back up to a quarter of its shares would significantly reduce the size of the £94m fund, worsen liquidity in the stock and push up its […]
International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) is to expand its investments in unquoted companies under a partnership with Schroders Capital, the private markets arm of its fund manager Schroders. The £258m investment trust has committed to invest £10m, around 4% of its assets, in Schroders Capital funds focused on innovative, early-stage biotech companies. This is in addition […]
Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) is to speed up the replacement of its board of directors in response to the significant minority votes against their re-election at the recent extraordinary and annual general meetings of shareholders. Following the appointment last month of infrastructure investor Simon Merriweather, the board is close to announcing a new non-executive […]
Board of Pacific Assets Trust insists its fund managers must make up for underperformance of the past four years to avoid a 25% tender offer in 2028, plus annual results and updates from JPMorgan Global Growth & Income, Abrdn Diversified Income & Growth, Patria Private Equity, Seraphim Space and a name change at JPMorgan Indian. […]
Former Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT) fund manager James Anderson has expressed concern about a bubble in artificial intelligence (AI) following Nvidia’s plan to invest $100bn in OpenAI. Anderson, who now runs a fund at Lingotto Investment Management, a firm backed by Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family, told the Financial Times that the surge in valuations in […]
TwentyFour Income Fund (TFIF) has become the second debt fund to launch a fund raise this week in response to strong investor demand for high-yielding asset-backed securities (ABS). The £883m investment company, whose shares yield 9.7% after consistently beating its dividend targets since launch in 2013, has announced a two-week share placing and open offer […]
Litigation Capital Management (LIT), an alternative asset manager that finances legal disputes, plunged today after the company was hit by the latest in a string of courtroom defeats that have pushed the Australian business deeply into the red. Shares in the AIM-listed company tumbled 16p, or 60%, to 10.6p after the High Court in London […]
Alliance Witan (ALW) has made two changes to its panel of external fund managers, dropping ARGA Investment Management after just 18 months and also letting go Sustainable Growth Advisors (SGA). ARGA, a Stamford, Connecticut global value fund manager was only added to the panel of stock pickers in April last year after the then Alliance […]
Jon Forster is stepping down as co-manager of Impax Environmental Markets (IEM). Forster will step back at the end of the year to become a senior industrials analyst at Impax Asset Management focused on environmental solutions companies. He will continue to contribute investment ideas for the portfolio. Jon is replaced by Sanjeev Lakhani, who joined […]
Annual report from Ruffer Investment Company, half-year update from 3i Infrastructure and results and news from Vietnam Holding, SDCL Energy Efficiency, North Atlantic Smaller Companies and Ashoka India Equity. Wealth preserver Ruffer Investment Company (RICA) failed to meet its benchmark in a year to 30 June that saw the departure in February of fund manager […]
Baronsmead venture capital trusts (VCTs) shored up Strategic Equity Capital (SEC) with a £10m investment two months before the Gresham House stablemate announced a 100% tender offer due to take place in October. Second quarter updates for the £200m Baronsmead Venture Trust (BVT) and £204m Baronsmead Second Venture Trust (BMD) revealed they each “invested £5m […]
Saba Capital and investors who followed the activist hedge fund in selling out of CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (CYN) in its tender offer have missed out on a glittering 45% summer rally in the mining fund’s shares as gold and silver have shot up. The £194m investment trust, one of seven targeted by […]
Annual results from UIL and Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies, dire interims from British & American, better half-year progress at Marwyn Value Investors and Baker Steel Resources, a fee cut at BlackRock Greater Europe and more beneficial M&A at RTW Biotech and International Biotechnology. UIL (UTL), a £286m split capital investment trust run by Utilico […]
Fair Oaks Income (FAIR), a £219m investor in high-yield corporate debt known as collateralised loan obligations (CLO), has proposed removing the 2028 maturity date of the master fund through which it invests. Responding to market changes, which had seen CLOs set for longer periods with terms frequently reset and extended, the Guernsey feeder fund said […]
Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has confirmed it made additional payments of over £5m in the past two financial years to its fund manager but denied these fees for essential services had not been properly disclosed. In a statement to the stock exchange the international battery fund said it wanted to correct “inaccurate and misleading […]
CVC Income and Growth (CVCG), the top-performing listed loan and bond fund over five and ten years, has launched a £60m share issue in response to investor demand for high yields and a haven from volatile markets. Having issued 39m shares in the past 12 months and seen its stock trade at a small premium […]
Under-pressure JPMorgan Emerging Markets (JMG) is proposing to more than double its dividend and change its name to attract more investors to shares trading 9.5% below their real value. In annual results for the year to 30 June, the £1.2bn investment trust said it would ask shareholders to approve lifting payouts to 1% of NAV […]
Merchants Trust (MRCH) regrets not holding Rolls-Royce (RR), the engineering group making a remarkable comeback under chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic. Shares in the aerospace engineer and small nuclear reactor manufacturer soared 78% in the six months to 31 July, a major contributor to the £938m UK equity income trust underperforming in its half-year results released […]
Fidelity European Trust (FEV) has completed its combination with Henderson European Trust (HET) after shareholders in the latter approved the merger on Friday. FEV will buy £462.7m net assets from HET for the issue of over 111.9m new shares. Added to FEV’s net assets of £1.7bn this will give the enlarged company over £2.1bn, enshrining […]
Nick Greenwood’s 40-year career in the investment trust industry had a chancy start. In the early 1990s, investment trusts were having a moment. An asset-hungry sales director at Christos saw the potential for a fund of investment trusts. Greenwood, then a stockbroker for the group, was put in charge, and the rest is history. Greenwood […]
Activist hedge fund Saba Capital plans to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) to achieve its goal of having a vehicle targeting investment companies and trusts on wide share price discounts. The Saba Capital Investment Trusts Ucits ETF is awaiting approval by regulators in Ireland, where it would be domiciled, the Financial Times reported. It will […]
Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9), the worst example of value destruction among investment companies in the past three years, has stabilised its portfolio in the first half of the year and should be ready to return what is left of shareholders’ capital in early 2026 after the revelation that its accounts were massively overvalued two years […]
Octopus Titan VCT (OTV2), the struggling £403m technology venture capital trust, has decided not to declare an interim dividend after posting another half-year of underperformance. “We recognise that this outcome will be disappointing to shareholders; however, dividends are ordinarily a distribution of investment gains (of which a material proportion should be realised rather than unrealised), […]
Abrdn New India lifts the maximum amount it can hold in a single stock; half-year results from Phoenix Spree Deutschland and CVC Income & Growth; plus updates from Baker Steel Resources, UIL and Pantheon International. Abrdn New India (ANII) amends its policy on single stock exposure to provide the fund manager with more flexibility following […]
Petershill Partners prepares to delist after four unsuccessful years on the UK stock market while India Capital Growth, Dunedin Income Growth, Pantheon Infrastructure, NB Private Equity and Aurora UK Alpha issue half-year results and Picton Property completes the sale of its largest office. Petershill Partners (PHLL) shares jump 33% after the £2.5bn Goldman Sachs fund […]
Manchester and London (MNL), the tech-laden global fund spectacularly riding the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, has halted share buybacks and share purchases by insiders in an effort to preserve its investment trust status and avoid a damaging tax bill. In its annual report issued yesterday evening the £331m company said the free float of shares […]
Target Healthcare (THRL), the £583m care home investor whose shares trailed on a 22% discount, has sold nine properties for £85.9m at an 11.6% premium to their 30 June valuation. Kenneth MacKenzie, chief executive of Target Fund Managers, which runs the £712m portfolio, hailed it as “landmark” deal, the largest disposal in the real estate investment […]
3i Group (III), the £39bn private equity giant, says weaker consumer spending in France and Germany combined with strikes in France have weighed on Action, the European discount retailer that accounts for around two thirds of its assets, but that its private equity and infrastructure portfolios are “performing resiliently against a subdued macroeconomic environment”. While […]
The Association of Investment Companies has again appealed to the government to amend its pension schemes bill in the House of Lords as time runs out to prevent the exclusion of London-listed closed-end funds. The bill, which has passed through the House of Commons, will give the government power to compel pension schemes to invest […]
(Updated with our comment) Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID) will only pay a minimum dividend of 0.11p per share next month as it focuses on investment in growth and upgrades to its battery portfolio. In half-year results today, the £412m investment trust said it would resume dividend payments that were suspended last year in response […]
