Fidelity Special Values (FSV) fund manager Alex Wright has told The Times that this month’s “AI scare” has created some of the best investment opportunities since the 2020 pandemic. While he believed that some of the sell-down in highly-rated stocks such as London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Relx (RELX) and Experian (EXPN) was “a valid […]
Private equity retains its crown as the AIC sector with the highest 10-year performance, at 595%. Yet its recent history has been chequered, with widening discounts and nerves over valuation. The sector appeared to be stabilising at the start of 2025, and in the second half of the year, has seen some green shoots. Investors […]
Chrysalis Investments (CHRY) fund managers Richard Watts and Nick Williamson have hit back at the board of the growth capital fund after it served six-month protective notice on them and criticised the pair for a lack of development in their business since spinning off from Jupiter Asset Management. Announcing an extraordinary general meeting to approve […]
The consolidation trend has moved to BlackRock with its Throgmorton (THRG) small-cap trust agreeing to merge with the larger BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC). Shareholders will be offered 38% and 28% cash exits in both investment trusts respectively at 1% discounts to net asset value. Saba, the activist holding 17.8% of BlackRock Throgmorton and 10.4% of […]
Valhalla Ventures, the holding company of Preqin founder Mark O’Hare, has lifted its stake in HgCapital (HGT) for a fourth time to 7.2% from 6.4%. The Jersey-based company bought again on Tuesday and now holds almost 33m shares which at almost 439p give him a stake worth around £145m in the £2bn investment trust investing in the private equity […]
For the second year in a row, BH Macro (BHMG), the £1.3bn Brevan Howard hedge fund, has won the backing of a big majority of its sterling shareholders to continue. Over 96% of votes at a sterling share class closure meeting held today were cast against discontinuation. Participation was high with 71.7% of sterling shares […]
Rights and Issues (RIII), the £106m UK smaller companies trust struggling on a 19% discount, has taken a step to maximise its chance of reinstating desperately needed share buybacks. A vote to resume share buybacks, which was blocked twice by a big shareholder last year, will be presented as an ordinary as well as a […]
Invesco Global Equity Income (IGET), the best-performing trust in its sector over five years, will retain over 96% of assets in Franklin Global (FRGT) following a shareholder vote on the merger announced in November. Holders of 46.28m FRGT shares, 96.3% of the total, yesterday agreed to roll over their investment into IGET, which is trading […]
Pantheon International (PIN), the £1.6bn private equity trust under pressure from activist investor Metage over its 28% share price discount, has cut the fund management fee it pays by an estimated 19%. From 1 June the company will pay Pantheon Ventures a flat rate of 1% of net asset value, which stood at £2.2bn at […]
Valhalla Ventures, the holding company of Preqin founder Mark O’Hare, has lifted its stake in HgCapital (HGT) for a third time to 6.4%. The disclosure came yesterday as the private equity trust fell as Investec reversed the “buy” rating slapped on the shares two weeks ago when they stood at a two-year low. Jersey-based Valhalla […]
NextEnergy Solar (NESF), the 17%-yielding renewables fund on a 40% share price discount, is to update investors on its strategic review on 11 March. NESF said the review being overseen by new chair Tony Quinlan was “progressing well” as it reported a further 3.9p, or 4.4%, fall in net asset value (NAV) per share to […]
UK inflation dropped to 3% in January, its lowest level since last March, according to the Office for National Statistics. Growth in the consumer price index fell from 3.4% in December, driven by lower food and petrol prices, but is still above the Bank of England’s 2% target. The FTSE 100 rallied 1% to 10,660 […]
Actively managed exchange-traded funds have got off to a strong start in 2026 after their record-breaking 2025, attracting $4.24bn (£3.13bn) in net inflows in January, according to data from ETFGI. The global increase, nearly three times the $1.6bn invested in active ETFs in January 2025, saw the fledgling sector push on after a year of […]
European Opportunities Trust’s (EOT) underperformance in the half-year to November may have been what tipped the board into announcing a strategic review last Friday, but fund manager Alexander Darwall remains confident in the prospects for his portfolio of “special” companies. Interim results today showed net asset value (NAV) including the annual 2p dividend paid in […]
Sirius Real Estate (SRE) took in £77m from investors yesterday in an accelerated fund raise to complete the €130m (£113m) acquisition of two defence-related investments in Germany. The £1.5bn property company, which invests in business parks in the UK and Germany, raised £77m before costs in a £75m share placing to institutions and a £2m […]
HgCapital Trust’s (HGT) newest shareholder, Valhalla Ventures, has raised its stake for a second time, lifting its position in the private equity fund to 5.4% last Thursday, according to a filing yesterday. Valhalla, the holding company of Preqin founder Mark O’Hare (pictured) and his wife Linda, now owns over 24.7m shares which at Monday’s closing price […]
A buoyant Seraphim Space (SSIT) has unveiled a “substantial” 24% leap in net asset value (NAV) on the back of valuation and contract gains by its four biggest holdings ICEYE, AllSpace, D-Orbit and Hawkeye 360. James Bruegger, chief investment officer at SSIT’s fund manager, Seraphim Space Manager, suggested there could be more to come after […]
The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has promised to step up share buybacks after revealing its net asset value (NAV) dropped 5.2% in the last quarter of 2025. With just four months to go before a continuation vote in June brought on by its weak share price, the company’s stock remains stuck on a wide 34.5% […]
Custodian Property Income (CREI) has quickly made good on its intention to expand through acquisition, announcing the purchase of Grove Court Properties, a £36m portfolio that has been family owned for 40 years. It was only on Friday the £408m real estate investment trust said it was in “initial talks” with a number of wealthy […]
Pershing Square (PSH) fund manager Bill Ackman “coerced and bullied” the directors of US real estate firm Howard Hughes into selling his firm Pershing Square Capital Management $900m of new shares last May, lifting its stake to nearly 47%, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the Charter Township of Shelby Fire & Police […]
Reviewing the returns in the active ETF sector in the early weeks of 2026, one company stands out for its negative results, and it is quite a turnaround from last year. Cathie Wood’s Florida-based ARK Investment Management had a storming 2025 (which we covered HERE), with ARK Innovation ETF and ARK Artificial Intelligence & Robotics […]
Diverse Income (DIVI) could be the next investment trust lining up an exit from the closed-end fund sector as it struggles with investor disinterest in UK smaller companies. In half-year results the board of the £275m UK equity income trust, which mostly invests outside the top FTSE 100 stocks, said it was looking at replacing […]
European Opportunities Trust (EOT) has launched a strategic review in anticipation that its underperformance will trigger a 25% tender offer later this year. Ahead of a continuation vote in October, the £405m investment trust managed by Alexander Darwall said it had consulted with shareholders and concluded now was the right time to review the company’s […]
Valhalla Ventures, the holding company of Preqin founder Mark O’Hare and his wife Linda, raised its new position in HgCapital Trust (HGT) from 3.3% to 4.4% on Tuesday, a disclosure showed yesterday. Preqin, an alternative assets data provider was bought by BlackRock for £2.5bn in 2024, netting a £2bn windfall for the company. At 463p […]
Over six months have passed since Cherry Reynard wrote about the biotech and healthcare sector for us in this article – The biotech bust: a case study in hype, hubris but now hope. The period since then has been an eventful one. The table below, which uses data as at the close of play on […]
The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has written to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) demanding measures to protect shareholders following Saba Capital’s call for a third meeting to remove the board of Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI). The trade body, which represents 276 London-listed investment companies with assets of […]
Invesco Bond Income Plus (BIPS) has raised £25m in the share issue it launched last month. Although the fund raise expands the £425m investment company by just 6%, the offer was comparatively well supported by private investors attracted by its covered 7% dividend yield. Over 6.6m shares were bought in the WRAP retail offer, 46% […]
German fund manager DWS has launched the Xtrackers Floating Rate Notes Active UCITS ETF (XFLN), the first actively managed exchange-traded fund targeting euro FRNs. The Irish-domiciled and Deutsche Börse-listed fund carries a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.12% and aims to beat the iBoxx EUR FRN Investment Grade 0–3Y Capped index. XFLN is designed for […]
Saba Capital has sought to deflect criticism of its third attempt to replace the board of Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) by proposing a full cash exit near net asset value (NAV) for shareholders who don’t want to remain invested in the investment trust dominated by the activist hedge fund. Saba, which holds just over 30% of […]
Brunner (BUT) has promised to protect shareholders’ capital from excessive AI speculation after underperforming the “extraordinarily narrow” market rally in its last financial year. Annual results show the £635m global equities investment trust, whose quality growth stock portfolio is managed by Julian Bishop and James Ashworth at Allianz Global Investors, made a total underlying return […]
