Update: The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has called for “immediate action” from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) announced a drastic 100% tender offer to end its 16-month battle with activist hedge fund Saba Capital. Last week, responding to a previous call from the AIC, the FCA announced it would look […]
Real estate had extended its strong performance in February with a median share price uplift over the month of 1.8% and 4.3% over the first two months of the year. That came crashing down at the start of March with war raging in the Middle East. There is a growing prospect that the conflict could […]
Asian and European markets have rallied with the FTSE 100 rising 1.6%, or 165 points, to 10,415 after a swift reversal in yesterday’s oil price spike. From an intra-day high of $115 a barrel on Monday, Brent crude has dropped back to $92 in response to US president Donald Trump saying the war in Iran […]
Professional ETF investors think actively managed exchange-traded funds will reach $10trn in assets in seven years, according to a new survey. Brown Brothers Harriman, a US private bank, polled 325 institutional investors, fund and wealth managers in the US, Europe and Greater China for its 2026 Global ETF Investor Survey. It found 94% believed that […]
HgCapital (HGT), the £1.8bn private equity investment trust hit by an “indiscriminate” sell-off in software stocks last month, has reasserted the quality of its business technology companies and its confidence in their ability to adapt to artificial intelligence. Announcing annual results for 2025, chair Jim Strang said shares in HGT, which invests in the private […]
European stock markets took another downwards lurch after Asian markets declined, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 slumping 5%, in response to Brent crude oil prices soaring 14% to $106 a barrel as the war in the Middle East showed no sign of ending. The FTSE 100, having dropped 5.7% last week following the launch by the […]
Mining fund managers Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd have resigned from Manulife-owned CQS with Golden Prospect (GPM), the top-performing £108m precious metals investment company they run, serving protective notice against the investment group. Shares in GPM and CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (CYN) and Geiger Counter (GCL), the two other London-listed closed-end funds they […]
Amedeo Air Four Plus (AA4), one of two remaining plane-leasing funds listed on the London Stock Exchange, soared nearly 28% on Friday after receiving a £143m cash bid from a Qatari bank. Lesha Bank, one of several bidders that emerged after a strategic review in 2024, has made a 73p per share cash offer that […]
Mobius (MMIT), the £93m emerging markets smaller companies fund shrunk by a 43% exit by shareholders in November, underperformed in 2025. Annual results confirmed a total portfolio return of 6.9% compared to the 21.9% advance in the MSCI Emerging Markets index. Shareholders received just 3.2% as the share price discount to net asset value widened […]
After a fresh layer of instability was added to an already uneasy global geopolitical landscape last weekend, the moment has arrived for the more defensive investment companies to come into their own. As bombs continue to rain down on Iran and retaliatory strikes are felt across the Middle East, fears are growing that the war […]
Baillie Gifford’s Kyle McEnery shares his approach to meeting the entrepreneurs building the future – including encounters with AppLovin, Anthropic, NVIDIA, Roblox and Reddit. Capital at risk.
Fear of an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble, an underweight position in banks such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs and a holding in struggling drinks giant Diageo cost Alliance Witan (ALW) dearly in 2025 as it underperformed the MSCI All Country World index for a second year in a row. The £4.8bn multi-manager trust, which […]
Saba Capital has opened a 5.2% position in Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) and included it in the activist hedge fund’s new active ETF targeting undervalued investments trusts. The New York based firm, which is battling to take control of Herald (HRI) and Impax Environmental Markets (IEM), holds most of the £96m ATT stake in total […]
After the success that the investment companies industry has had with persuading government to fix the misleading cost disclosure problem, the current fight is to ensure that the new Pensions Schemes Bill going through parliament doesn’t block pension funds from buying investment companies. This issue relates to the Mansion House Accord. In May 2025, 17 […]
Update: 3i Infrastructure (3IN) has sold its 71% stake in TCR, the airport ground support equipment provider, for €1.14bn (£1bn), 22% more than the 30 September valuation and 50% more than at 31 March last year when its biggest position was put up for sale. News that the company will repay the €626m drawn on […]
Update: Greencoat Renewables (GRP), the £749m Ireland-focused wind and solar fund trailing on a 31% discount, is looking to sell €350m of assets over 18 months to reduce debts and buy back €100m (£87m) of shares. Alongside annual results, showing an already disclosed 10.3% fall in net asset value (NAV), it also announced a plan […]
Aberdeen UK Smaller Companies (AUSC) is “engaging closely” with fund managers Abby Glennie and Amanda Yeaman after the investment trust endured a “disappointing” half year of underperformance that saw its market value fall by 20%, mostly due to the high level of share buybacks authorised by the board to support the weak share price. For […]
Bellevue Healthcare (BBH) will be left with around £60.5m as it transfers to Columbia Threadneedle after shareholders sold 40.9%, or just over 29.9m shares, in the 100% tender offer announced last month. At its peak in 2021 under former fund manager Bellevue Asset Management, BBH had £1bn of assets. Ameriprise Financial, the parent company of Columbia […]
We already knew Seraphim Space (SSIT) had a strong fourth quarter from gains in its top four holdings ICEYE, AllSpace, D-Orbit and Hawkeye 360 highlighted last month. Interim results for the six months to 31 December today show net asset value (NAV) jumped 20.1% to 142.3p per share from 118.52p. The half-year results show the […]
Foresight Solar (FSFL) has had to pay more to UK tax authorities to settle historic liabilities, knocking another 5.5p from net asset value per share on top of the 3.6p adjustment made in November. Overall NAV per share fell 2.9p to 99.2p in the fourth quarter a trading update showed, benefiting from a higher production […]
Murray International (MYI) benefited from its genuinely global portfolio in 2025 as gains in Latin America and Asia as well as the US pushed the £2.1bn equity income trust to a total underlying return of 21.9%. Shareholders enjoyed a 36% total return as the shares shed their discount and ended December on a small premium […]
HICL Infrastructure (HICL) has resumed buying back its shares on a 22% discount and is near the end of a consultation with nearly half its shareholders since abandoning a merger with InfraRed stablemate The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) late last year. It will publish its conclusions in May. In a trading update for October to […]
The Financial Conduct Authority has said it will consider how to protect investment company investors from activist shareholders like Saba. Launching a review into its shakeup of UK listing rules two years ago, the FCA said: “As part of this review, we will also conduct targeted work to assess how our rules, in the context of […]
Dutch investment manager Robeco claims to have taken the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to a new level for its latest active exchange-traded fund investing in global smaller companies. The dollar-denominated NextGen Global Small Cap ETF (RGSC LN) employs machine learning to identify opportunities within an under-researched and inefficient asset class that is ripe for […]
Asia and European stock markets have plunged after Iran threatened to attack ships in the region in response to ongoing air strikes against the country by the US and Israel. The UK’s FTSE 100 slumped 2.7%, or 287 points, to 10,492 as defence and mining stocks joined travel companies and banks in sharp declines at […]
RIT Capital Partners (RCP), the £3bn Rothschild-backed global investment trust, generated a 13.5% underlying return last year, helped by a strong second half recovery in world markets and excellent returns from its private equity investments, including a raised stake in SpaceX. With sentiment towards the multi-asset fund improving following sustained share buybacks and increased transparency […]
Update: Bluefield Solar Income (BSIF) has had “good interest” from potential bidders with a shortlist of parties doing due diligence and the sales process started in November progressing “in line with expectations”. The £460m, 11%-yielding renewables fund also reported good operational performance in the half-year to 31 December despite a 7.5% drop in net asset […]
Custodian Property Income (CREI) has made its second all-share acquisition of a family property company in two weeks, buying Scorpion Properties, a portfolio of five single-let industrial assets in the South Midlands along the M40 corridor for £8.5m. The 6.8%-yielding portfolio comprises of four vehicle accident repair centres let to one of the UK’s leading […]
YieldMax, a US options-based income specialist, has launched a fourth actively managed exchange traded fund (ETF) targeting volatile semiconductor stocks as a source of high yields for income investors. The London-listed YieldMax Semiconductor Option Income UCITS ETF (CHPY) uses a complex variation of a “covered call” strategy which aims to minimise the amount of upside […]
Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) and fund manager Impax are under pressure to give Saba a cost-free exit after the activist hedge fund said that was the only obstacle to selling its 21% stake in the continuation tender offer last week. In response to an open letter from IEM chair Glen Suarez appealing to Saba founder […]
