Biotech Growth (BIOG) saw a big vote against the re-election of Orbimed fund manager Geoff Hsu to the board at the annual general meeting in London yesterday. Although the co-manager, who runs its £330m portfolio with Josh Golomb, was re-appointed he received the support of 63.1%, or nearly 2.9m, of votes with 36.9%, almost 1.7m, […]
European thematic ETFs are attracting money again after two difficult years, with semiconductor funds overtaking defence strategies as investors increasingly target the infrastructure required to support artificial intelligence. Thematic ETFs attracted $13.31bn of net inflows in Europe during the first half of 2026, according to ETFbook data included in HANetf’s latest review of the European […]
A bid battle for Alternative Income REIT (AIRE) has broken out with AEW UK REIT (AEWU) returning to the fray with a possible higher all-share offer. AEWU, a top-performing £169m UK real estate investment trust, said it was “considering” offering 0.725 of its shares for each AIRE share, priced at a 6% discount to AIRE’s […]
Workspace (WKP) non-executive director David Stevenson looks vulnerable ahead of the real estate investment trust’s (REIT) annual general meeting on 23 July after proxy adviser Glass Lewis this week joined rival ISS in recommending shareholders vote against the investment columnist and publisher’s re-election to its board. The entire WKP board is under threat as activist […]
Supermarket Income REIT (SUPR) has raised the £100m it was seeking in yesterday’s placing and retail offer. It will issue 120.5m shares at 83p, which, as the price is below the 87.5p per share of net asset value at 31 December, requires the approval of shareholders at a general meeting on 3 August. If this […]
HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE) has passed its first continuation vote with over 98% support of shareholder votes. Results from the annual general meeting held in Guernsey on Wednesday afternoon show the special resolution on HVPE’s continuation was backed by over 32.9m shares, 98.2% of the total that were voted. Turnout was 48%. Over 590,000 […]
The Association of Investment Companies has called on incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to help “save our stock market” by abolishing stamp duty and reversing last year’s reduction of tax relief on venture capital trusts (VCTs). Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, is poised to replace Sir Kier Starmer as leader of the Labour […]
Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) shares fell today after the investment trust’s new board unveiled a larger than expected fall in the battery portfolio after updating revenue forecasts. Net asset value (NAV) slid 14.8%, or 13p, to 74.9p per share in the fourth quarter of the company’s financial year, taking the total decline for the […]
NextEnergy Solar (NESF), a high-yielding renewables fund languishing on a 39% share price discount, has put itself up for sale and complained of the short-term horizons of some investors. The £268m investment company this morning invited bids from “bona fide parties”, saying that despite “the performance of its underlying portfolio of assets, NESF continues to […]
Supermarket Income REIT (SUPR) has launched a £100m share issue to fund the purchase of three supermarkets in Manchester, Edinburgh and Halifax for £118m and a further pipeline of six assets for £98m. The fund raise will comprise of a placing to professional investors and an offer to private investors through Retail Book. Chief executive […]
BlackRock plans to launch Europe’s first active defence ETF to take advantage of arms manufacturers’ booming order books driven by a surge in government spending. The world’s largest asset manager, with $15.4trn under management, has filed an intention to launch the Dublin-based exchange-traded fund with the Central Bank of Ireland. The iShares Global Defence & […]
First Trust is preparing to bring one of its largest actively managed US ETFs to Europe, with plans to launch a UCITS version of its $2.4bn First Trust Long/Short Equity ETF. First Trust launched the US-listed First Trust Long/Short Equity ETF, known by its ticker FTLS, in 2014. Its growth to around $2.4bn in assets […]
MIGO Opportunities’ (MIGO) relaunch as a higher conviction portfolio after the appointment of AVI’s Tom Treanor last year has paid off with the £69m investment company bargain hunter achieving a 20.6% return in the 12 months to 30 April. The investment trust, which invests in other London-listed funds when their shares are cheap, provided a […]
Schroder British Opportunities (SBO), the £55m growth capital fund facing a wind-down vote early next year, saw the value of its investments fall 3% in the 12 months to 31 March as the technology weighted portfolio was hit by fears of artificial intelligence (AI) disruption. Chair Justin Ward said the unquoted companies that accounted for […]
Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT) says SpaceX (SPCX) accounted for over a quarter (25.7%) of its £18.7bn portfolio at 30 June, up from 21% before its record flotation on 12 June and up from 8.2% in November. The disclosure in the latest factsheet of the Baillie Gifford flagship came yesterday as SpaceX shares fell to $139, […]
Defiance ETFs has launched Europe’s first photonics ETF, offering investors targeted exposure to the optical technologies used to move rapidly growing volumes of data around AI systems and data centres. The Defiance Photonics UCITS ETF (PHOT) invests in companies developing, manufacturing and commercialising technologies that generate, transmit and process information using light rather than electricity. […]
Aquila European Renewables (AERI) chair Robert Naylor has added to his growing list of grievances against Aquila Capital after the investment company had to stump up €700,000 (£597,000) to bail out a wind power project in Finland and accused the site’s technical manager of missing out on valuable government support. Naylor said this was the […]
Schroder European Real Estate (SERE), the £85m commercial property investment trust drawing up plans for a managed wind-down, saw its portfolio fall 3.9% in the three months to 30 June. Weaker investment demand for secondary offices and heightened economic uncertainty alongside concerns over rising inflation and interest rates knocked €7.5m off the valuation, the real […]
Great Portland Estates (GPE) says development director Andrew White will leave the central London real estate investment trust after 13 years. Chief executive Toby Courtauld said White had played a leading role in many of the company’s most successful developments. His role will not be replaced with executive director Dan Nicolson retaining board level responsibility […]
Last week, I attended Troy Asset Management’s annual investment trust seminar. The event clearly has a loyal following, with many investors returning year after year, and the presentations offered some interesting perspectives. As space was limited, I thought I would share some of the key points for those unable to attend. Long-term capital preservation For […]
LondonMetric Property (LMP) and Schroder REIT (SREI) have increased their offer for Picton Property (PCTN) by 0.8%. The consortium announced a revised exchange ratio on SREI’s portion of the deal to 0.894 new SREI shares per PCTN share from 0.881. The LMP exchange ratio of 0.190 is unchanged. This has had the effect of increasing […]
Golden Prospect Precious Metals (GPM) has agreed heads of terms to appoint Baker Steel Capital Managers as its new investment manager and AIFM, opting not to follow its former portfolio managers to Tufton Investment Management. The appointment is expected to take effect during the third quarter of 2026. Baker Steel’s Mark Burridge and Trevor Steel […]
Polar Capital Technology Trust (PCT) delivered an exceptional year to 30 April 2026, with its net asset value (NAV) per share rising by 102.2%, comfortably ahead of the 55.0% return from its benchmark, the Dow Jones Global Technology Index. The trust’s share price performed even more strongly, increasing by 109.0% to 603p, as the discount […]
It has been reported that ISS, the proxy advisory firm that provides independent research and voting recommendations to institutional investors, has recommended that shareholders vote against the re-election of two of Workspace Group’s (WKP’s) incumbent non-executive directors, Nick Mackenzie and David Stevenson, and instead vote in favour of the appointment of two new non-executive directors […]
Workspace (WKP) has blasted the latest proposals for its turnaround from Saba Capital, its second largest investor, as “high-risk, short-sighted and not suitable” for the flexible office provider. Responding to the latest materials posted this week by 28% shareholder Saba on its makeworskpacework.co.uk website, Workspace said the activist hedge fund’s revision to its original plan […]
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (FGEN) fund manager Chris Tanner is passing on the reins to co-managers Ed Mountney and Charlie Wright as he prepares to start a new role at Foresight Group. Tanner was instrumental in the launch of JLEN in 2014, the former John Laing Environmental Assets, joining Foresight (FSG) in 2019 when it bought […]
SEGRO (SGRO) has reiterated its rejection of last month’s all-share bid approach from Prologis of the US after posting a “significant” first half rise in new rent to £53m from £31m a year ago. Having achieved a 44% uplift on rent reviews, renewals and regears in the UK in the six months to 30 June, chief […]
Seraphim Space (SSIT) has crystallised a gain on its stake in ALL.SPACE, albeit a bit less less than it first expected from the sale of the UK satellite communications company that was previously its second biggest holding. Under the terms of the $355m cash and equity acquisition of ALL.SPACE agreed by US defence group York […]
Amundi is set to convert one of its disruptive technology ETFs into a memory chips strategy, as asset managers continue to build products around the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence. The Amundi MSCI Disruptive Technology UCITS ETF will be renamed the Amundi Global Memory Chips UCITS ETF from 17 July 2026. The fund will also switch […]
Saba Capital has doubled its holding in HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE) to 10%, strengthening its position ahead of next week’s continuation vote. A stock market filing today showed the US activist hedge fund, which has proved a hostile shareholder in trusts such as Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) and Impax Environmental Markets (IEM), lifted its HVPE […]
