Renewables Infrastructure buys Swedish wind farm – The Renewables Infrastructure Group has exchanged contracts to acquire a 75% interest in Ersträsk Wind Farm, a 229.1MW onshore wind farm near Piteå in Northern Sweden. The project is being acquired from Enercon Independent Power Producer GmbH. The deal increases TRIG’s generation capacity to 1.11GW and will mean that […]

BlackRock Income and Growth caught by Patisserie Valerie potential fraud – BlackRock Income and Growth lagged its benchmark by 3%, returning -4.5% against -1.5% over the year ended 31 October 2018. Its discount also widened, leaving shareholders nursing an 8% loss. The chairman says that holdings in Patisserie Holdings and TP ICAP held back performance. […]

Murray International cuts management fee – Murray International has announced that, with effect from 1 January 2019, its management fee will be 0.5% of net assets up to GBP1,200m and 0.425% of net assets above GBP1,200m. (The existing fee, chargeable until 31 December 2018 is 0.575% of net assets up to GBP1,200 million, 0.5% of […]

Lazard World Trust Fund sets out wind down proposals – Lazard World Trust Fund has published a circular to effect a managed wind-down of the company. The company will sell off its assets, trying to strike a balance between speed and value maximisation. Shareholders are being asked: to amend the investment policy to enable a controlled, […]

Alpha Real Trust sells Frankfurt data site – Alpha Real Trust has announced that it has entered into a binding contract for the sale of its data centre site in Frankfurt for a cash consideration of EUR44.8 million. Completion of the sale is subject to certain agreed conditions being satisfied, including customary German local authority land […]

AS Euro Logistics celebrates full investment with fee cut – With the exchange of contracts on the assets in Zeewolde and Waddinxveen in the Netherlands, Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income has committed the whole of the funds it raised in December 2017. The most recent addition to the portfolio (a warehouse in Meung-Sur-Loire in France) […]

Greencoat UK Wind ushers in era of subsidy free renewable energy – Greencoat UK Wind has entered into an agreement to acquire the Douglas West wind farm from Blue Energy. Completion is expected to take place in Q1 2019, subject to the finalisation of construction, operation and maintenance contracts. Subsidy free Douglas West is located 7 […]

Polar Capital Global Healthcare let down by widening discount – Polar Capital Global Healthcare reports that its NAV rose by 19.8% over the year end of September 2018 on a total return basis, ahead of its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Healthcare Index, which returned 17.2% over the same period. However, a widening in the discount to NAV […]

Following on from its announcement on 7 December 2018 that its manager Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd, is subject to enquiries, by the US and Bermuda governments, into loss reserves recorded in late 2017 and early 2018 (click here to read the story), CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities (CATCo) has now announced that its board has noted […]

Tetragon Financial Group (TFG) has announced that its GreenOak Real Estate joint venture is to merge Bentall Kennedy, which it describes as Sun Life Financial Inc.’s leading North American real estate and property management firm. The combined entity will be named Bentall GreenOak and will be part of Sun Life Investment Management. The merger is […]

SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT), which listed on the London Stock Exchange on 11 December 2018 having raised £100m from its IPO, has announced that it has completed the acquisition of its seed portfolio for £87m million. SEIT has that the terms of the acquisition are in accordance with its prospectus that was published […]

John Laing Environmental Assets Group (JLEN) has announced that it has acquired an anaerobic digestion asset, Biogas Meden Limited, for £16.2m. Biogas Meden owns the Welbeck Anaerobic Digestion Plant. Following this acquisition, JLEN has a portfolio of six anaerobic digestion projects and the total capacity of the renewable energy assets in the JLEN investment portfolio […]

Merian Chrysalis makes first investments – Merian Chrysalis has announced deals which, if completed, would make it 60% invested. The latest is an investment of approximately $25 million in a $200 million series D funding round conducted by Graphcore Limited. Graphcore is a leading artificial intelligence processor company, which has developed the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) […]

Athelney exploring ways of expanding – Athelney Trust is undertaking extensive consultation with shareholders and potential new investors, which may lead to a tender offer for any existing shareholders who wish to exit, coinciding with an issue of new shares. Directors and their advisers will be contacting shareholders directly. Any shareholder wishing to discuss this is […]

Finsbury Growth and Income extends run of outperformance –  net asset value return per share for the year was 13.1% and the share price total return 13.2%. Both have again significantly outperformed the benchmark, the All-Share Index, measured on a total return basis, which rose by 5.9% over the same period. The principal contributions to net […]

BlackRock North American lags benchmark but higher dividend boosts share price – “For the financial year ending 31 October 2018, the NAV total return was modestly below that of the benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index. Over the same period, U.S. large cap stocks, as represented by the broader S&P 500 Index, advanced by 7.34% […]

Geiger Counter publishes glowing report – Uranium prices in the spot market have rallied sharply and reached a level of US$27.5 at the end of September 2018, which equates to a rise of 35% over Geiger Counter’s financial year. Uranium equities have started to rise given this favourable background and new vehicles were launched in the […]

Schroder Mid Cap out of favour – Schroder Mid Cap’s chairman says that it is disappointing that the fund’s performance for the year ended 30 September 2018 was more muted than the prior year due in part to mid cap shares not being in favour with investors. The benchmark delivered a total return of 4.2%. […]

Secure Property Development and Investment sells non-Greek assets – Secure Property Development & Investment has entered into an agreement for the sale of its property portfolio, excluding its Greek logistics properties, in an all-share transaction to Arcona Property Fund N.V.. The deal values SPDI’s non-Greek portfolio at EUR29.25 million (based on a net asset value of […]

Hipgnosis Songs Fund has announced that it has acquired a music catalogue from Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, an American record producer, songwriter, music publisher and multiple Grammy winner. The Company has acquired a 100% interest in Tricky’s catalogue including has ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) income. Tricky Stewart’s Catalogue The catalogue comprises 121 […]

Pacific Horizon Investment Trust has announced a change to the first tier of its management fee that is beneficial to shareholders. With effect from 1 January 2019, the annual management fee will be charged at a rate of 0.75% on the first £50m of net assets, at 0.65% on the next £200m of net assets […]

Lowland Investment Company (LWI) has announced its annual results for the year ended 30 September 2018. The chairman, Robert Robertson, reports that, during the year, LWI saw a combination of modest capital growth and strong revenue growth with an NAV total return of 2.7%. He says that this has been a disappointing year when measured […]

Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) has announced that it has acquired two windfarms, Church Hill and Crighshane, from the Irish Infrastructure Fund and from the Viridian Group (the Viridian Group held a minority stake), for a total consideration of £87 million, including the prepayment of existing project finance debt facilities. The acquisition has been funded by […]

GCP Infrastructure Investments (GCP) has announced its annual results for the year ended 30 September 2018. During the year, GCP maintained its dividend at 7.6p, increased its NAV by 1.7% to 112.49p per share and provided a share price total return of 4.8%. Ian Reeves, the fund’s chairman describes these results as being achieved, “against […]

Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust (EGL) has announced its annual results for the year ended 30 September 2018. During the year, EGL provided an NAV total return of 4.8%n and a share price total return of 1.1%. According to EGL, this compares against a 4.9% return for the MSCI World Utilities Index. The superior […]

Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWI) has announced its annual results for the year ended 31 October 2018. During the year, EWI provided Nav and share price total returns of 14.9% and 19.0% respectively. EWI says that its comparative index, the S&P Global Small Cap Index, increased by 0.1% in sterling total return terms. EWI says […]

Local Shopping REIT says liquidation blocked – The Local Shopping REIT has announced that the special resolution to, amongst other things, wind-up the company voluntarily, proposed at the general meeting  held yesterday attracted the support of 61.87% of the votes cast. However, the resolution did not achieve a majority of 75% of the votes cast required […]

Invesco Perpetual Enhanced Income (IPE) has announced its annual results for the year ended 30 September 2018. During the year, IPE achieved what its chairman, Paul Yates, describes as a “a small but positive total return for shareholders”, based on the share price with dividends reinvested, of 0.1%. However, the share price fell from 80.3p […]

AXA Property Trust (APT) has announced that it has received a “Member’s Requisition of an Extraordinary General Meeting” or, in other words, a request for an EGM. APT says that requires that a general meeting of the Company be convened, at the earliest opportunity, for the purpose of considering and voting on the following resolution: […]