Global multi-manager giant Alliance Witan (ALW) has negotiated a management fee cut from its fund manager Towers Watson. The current tiered annual management charge starting at 0.52% will be replaced in April by a single charge of 0.46% of the £4.5bn investment trust’s market value, falling to 0.41% in January. This follows publication of its […]

HICL Infrastructure (HICL) has looked to move beyond the embarrassment of its aborted merger attempt with Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) late last year by selling its 24% stake in the A63 Motorway in France for £311m. The price for HICL’s second largest holding at 8.4% of assets represents a 21% premium to book value, which […]

Chrysalis (CHRY) received 98% of shareholder votes at Wednesday’s EGM for the three-year wind-down proposed by the board. Chair Andrew Haining said: “The board will now implement an orderly realisation of the company’s assets, in a manner consistent with maximising the portfolio value over a three-year period.” BB Healthcare has changed its name and ticker […]

The real estate investment trust is sector is hopping with M&A excitement this afternoon as AEW UK REIT (AEWU) makes a move on Alternative Income REIT (AIRE) and LondonMetric Property (LMP) and Schroder Real Estate (SREI) collaborate in a potential carve-up of Picton Property Income (PCTN). Alternative Income, a £60m long lease fund, one of […]

In November, we covered the first European active ETF launches by Dimensional Fund Advisors (click here to read more), a significant player in the US market. These funds have achieved rapid success in terms of gathering assets, currently standing at $994m in the case of the Global Core Equity UCITS ETF and $150m for the […]

Efforts by Global Opportunities Trust (GOT) to raise its profile paid off last year as the defensively managed, flexible investment fund delivered a 21.9% total return to shareholders. Much of this came from the shares narrowing their gap – or discount – to the portfolio’s net asset value from 23.5% to 16.1% as increased marketing […]

BioPharma Credit (BPCR), the £1bn high-yielding lender to US drugs companies, is confident of redeploying its large cash pile as a recovery in mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical sector provides new investment opportunities. Collegium Pharmaceutical’s repayment of a $261.4m loan in December, having achieved its first syndicated credit facility with mainstream banks on lower […]

Oryx International Growth (OIG) has announced “with great sadness” the death of its chairman Nigel Cayzer. Cayzer, 71, was a former chair of Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies, now Aberdeen Asia Focus (AAS), and served as a non-executive director on Caledonia Investments (CLDN) in the 1980s. The board of the £256m UK smaller companies trust managed […]

The chair of Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) has hit out at the Financial Conduct Authority after one of its senior officials said the regulator should not be expected to “pick sides” in investment trusts’ battles with activist hedge fund Saba. Jonathan Simpson-Dent (pictured) said smaller investors needed “meaningful protection” after Simon Walls, interim executive director for […]

CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (CYN) has followed Golden Prospect Precious Metals (GPM) and Geiger Counter (GCL) in serving protective notice against its investment manager Manulife CQS after the resignations last month of Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd. CYN, at £126m the largest of the three investment companies run by the mining specialists, has […]

Partners Group Private Equity (PEY) is under pressure to return more capital to shareholders after a disappointing 2025 saw its portfolio fall 8.7% to €891.5m (£773m). Most of the net asset value (NAV) decline, 5.7%, was due to the weak dollar but “value creation” was just 0.7% with a number of companies facing “idiosyncratic challenges”. […]

European markets have rebounded after US President Trump postponed strikes on Iran’s power plants saying the US had held “productive discussions” about a halt to the aerial war it launched with Israel on 28 February. From an intra-day low of 9,672 at 10.50am, the FTSE 100 rallied 2.8% to 9,943 at 12.45pm as stocks, including […]

US Global Investors Travel UCITS ETF has fallen sharply in recent weeks, as the war in Iran has triggered a broad and severe sell-off across global travel equities, particularly airlines, which sit at the core of the portfolio. The fund is down 11.09% over one month, leaving it 10.35% lower year-to-date. The speed of the […]

Temple Bar (TMPL), the top-performing UK Equity Income investment trust, is confident it can maintain its winning form after outpacing the rebound in the domestic stock market by nearly nine percentage points last year. Annual results confirm the company, which celebrates its centenary this year, generated a total underlying return of 33.9% in 2025, exceeding […]

SDCL Efficiency Income (SEIT) has delivered the disposal it promised in December, selling a portfolio of operational assets to French green investor Kyotherm for £105m to cut debts, but has warned the 9% discount to net asset value (NAV) is as good as it can get in a buyers’ market and that bigger cuts will […]

Augmentum Fintech (AUGM) has urged shareholders to vote for the £185.7m cash bid from Norwegian buyout group Verdane the board recommended last month as the best way for investors to realise some value in the short term. The investment company has published a circular detailing how shareholders can send in proxy votes for the meetings […]

Amundi Investment Solutions has launched a new low-cost active ETF, the Amundi EUR Corporate Bond Active UCITS ETF, the latest addition to a growing wave of fixed income active ETF launches as investors return to bond markets in search of income and diversification. The fund’s benchmark is the Bloomberg Euro Aggregate Corporate Index, a sub-index […]

Half-year results from Manchester & London (MNL) show the price the £297m technology fund paid for having around a quarter of its assets in Microsoft when the market turned negative on the IT colossus’ approach to artificial intelligence (AI) last year. A slump in the shares of the US software giant from last October as […]

High-yielding corporate debt fund Fair Oaks Income (FAIR) will switch its reporting currency from dollars to euros and cut its 2 US cents quarterly dividend to 1 euro cent which will reduce its base yield to 10% from 17% currently. There will also be a 1 for 10 share consolidation. The £186m investment company said […]

JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI) fund managers have cut their underweight to the AI tech rally, adding Google-owner Alphabet and US chip maker Broadcom to the portfolio, after their wariness on market momentum saw the £3bn investment trust underperform in the second half of 2025 with a total 9.1% investment return falling behind the […]

Schroder Asian Total Return (ATR) fund managers Robin Parbrook and King Fuei Lee are considering adding some defensive hedges to protect the portfolio from increasingly expensive Asian stock markets showing “signs of AI-related froth”. Their cautious tone came in annual results showing the £567m investment trust made an underlying return of 14.2% last year with […]

US Solar Fund (USF), the £98m renewables fund run by Amber Infrastructure, will “pause regular dividends” after a 0.255 cents per share fourth quarter dividend. This is to conserve cash after an 11.7% fall in generation caused by unplanned outages last year left its pay-outs uncovered. Annual results showed net asset value (NAV) fell 4.1% […]

Floating rate debt fund CVC Income & Growth (CVCG) has sought to reassure investors after falls of more than 8% in its sterling and euro share classes this year. While private credit markets have been hit by the gating of funds run by Blue Owl Capital and BlackRock, CVCG says it is mainly exposed to […]

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF) had a strong 2025 generating a 22.2% underlying return that beat the 21.3% of the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan index, with performance boosted by Aberdeen fund managers Eric Chan and Isaac Thong’s technology stocks benefiting from spending on artificial intelligence (AI). Shareholders enjoyed a 30% return as the share […]

Fidelity European (FEV), a £2bn sector leader after last year’s merger with Henderson European, made a decent 16.3% underlying return in 2025, helped by its holdings in banks and other financials. However, it hugely underperformed the FTSE World Europe ex-UK index which shot up 27.9% as cheap value stocks did better than the quality growth companies […]

Saba Capital has doubled its stake in Molten Ventures (GROW) to 10%. Shares in the £811m digital start-up fund, whose largest holding is in $75bn UK neobank Revolut, stand on a wide 37% discount giving the activist investor plenty to go for. Despite the valuation gap, GROW shares have shot up 67% in the past […]

Annual results from BlackRock World Mining (BRWM) have left investors on tenterhooks as to whether the £1.6bn investment trust can repeat last year’s “stellar” performance as conflict in the Middle East and high oil prices hang over markets.  Shareholders in the largest London-listed mining funds received a 74.1% total return in 2025 in line with […]

Shares in Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) have jumped 6% after the £247m battery fund said it would hike dividends to return more capital to shareholders. In a strategy update, the investment company’s new chair Angus Gordon Lennox said GSF would lift its quarterly dividends to 1.75p per share a quarter with proceeds from asset […]

Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) has followed Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) in formally launching its 100% tender offer, urging shareholders to vote for and use the exit at net asset value (NAV) to avoid become trapped in a fund controlled by 22.1% holder Saba. Saba, the US activist hedge fund that yesterday forced Edinburgh Worldwide to fall […]