Investment Companies News

Investment companies are companies set up to make investments on behalf of their shareholders (also called closed-end funds and, in specific circumstances, investment trusts).

16 Nov 2015

Utilico Investments name changed to UIL Limited

Utilico Investments shareholders approve name change. As part of its annual results release in September, the board of Utilico Investments announced that, given the continued diversification of the portfolio away from utilities, they considered it appropriate for the company to change its name to UIL Limited. A resolution to approve the name change has now been passed […]

13 Nov 2015

LXB Retail gets planning permission for Living Villages concept

LXB Retail Properties has published an update on further pre-lets at a number of the Group’s investment properties and on planning consent for the Group’s first Living Villages project. Living Villages – Higher Newham, Truro The Strategic Planning Committee at Cornwall Council recently resolved to grant planning permission for the Group’s Higher Newham Farm proposals […]

13 Nov 2015

Empiric Student Property to acquire 155 George Street in Glasgow

Empiric student property has announced that it has exchanged contracts, subject to planning, on a forward funded development in Glasgow. The scheme, known as 155 George Street (pictured), is an 89 bed premium student accommodation development. The total investment is £9.6m, which is to be invested in stages against development milestones. Empiric is to acquire the […]

13 Nov 2015

Standard Life Property Income publishes proposals

Following on from its announcement at the end of September, Standard Life Property Investments has published details of its £100m fund raising and acquisition of a Jersey Property Unit Trust (JPUT). Standard Life Property Investments  has entered into the conditional Acquisition Agreement in relation to the acquisition of a new portfolio of 22 UK commercial real […]

13 Nov 2015

Kuala Innovations trading at enormous premium

Kuala Innovations has published interim figures covering the six months to the end of September 2015. Over the six months the NAV rose from 1.69p to 2.57p. the company made a loss for the period of 0.46p. The uplift largely reflects share issues the company made at 5p per share during the period. Since then the company has […]

12 Nov 2015

Good stock selection delivers for Standard Life Equity Income

Standard Life Equity Income has announced results for the year ended 30 September 2015. Over that period, the fund’s total return on net assets was an impressive 14.1% as compared to a -2.3% return on the FTSE All-Share Index. The Chairman believes that good stock selection and being prepared to hold a portfolio which is […]

12 Nov 2015

Greencoat UK Wind proposes to raise £50m through placing to institutions

Greencoat UK Wind proposes to raise £50m. Greencoat UK Wind has announced that it intends to raise up to £50m through a placing of its ordinary shares by way of a tap issue to institutional investors. Tim Ingram, Chairman of the company, has said that they are currently working towards a particular acquisition and that […]

12 Nov 2015

Global Resources 9% Convertible holders agree a reduced coverage ratio until January

Global Resources Investment Trust announced on the 2 November that, as a result of its NAV falling to 34.58p per share, its total assets equated to 3.94x the value of its convertible. One of the covenants that GRIT has been obliged to abide by, since the convertibles were issued, is that the asset cover on the convertibles should […]

12 Nov 2015

Gold demand climbs on jewellery, investment and Central Bank buying

The World Gold Council (“WGC”) reported some good news for gold this morning in its quarterly “Gold Demand Trends” publication for Q3 2015. Gold demand climbed 8% to 1,121 t from Q3 2014 as demand for jewellery grew 6% year-on-year with lower prices during July and early August attracting consumers. The quarter under review was […]

12 Nov 2015

Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained suffers from weakness in Asian markets

Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained (formerly Martin Currie Pacific) has announced its interim results for the half-year ended 30 September 2015. During the period the trust, managed by Andrew Graham (pictured), has reportedly given up most of the gains made in the previous financial year to 31 March 2015.  On a total return basis, the trust’s NAV […]

11 Nov 2015

Schroder Oriental Income shrugs off Asian market challenges

Schroder Oriental Income Fund, chaired by Robert Sinclair (pictured), has announced its results for the year ended 31 August 2015, during which the company’s NAV fell by 5.8% and its share price by 6.1%. However these are both appreciably ahead of the performance of the Company’s reference index, the MSCI AC Pacific (ex Japan) Index, […]

11 Nov 2015

Northern Investors on track for final liquidation by the end of 2017

Northern Investors has released its interim report for the half-year ended 30 September 2015. The company continues to follow its realisation strategy and, during the period, the number of holdings in the portfolio was reduced further from 15 to 12. Investment sales during the period generated total cash proceeds of £2.5m. The NAV per share […]

11 Nov 2015

JPMorgan Japanese – stock selection drives outperformance over TOPIX

JPMorgan Japanese, managed by Nicholas Weindling (Pictured),  has announced its final results for the year ended 30 September 2015 during which the companies NAV rose 14.7% (total return in sterling terms), outperforming its benchmark TOPIX index, which returned 6.0%. The share price performance was stronger returning 19.5% during the year. Over three years the Company’s […]

11 Nov 2015

Gabelli Value Plus+ Trust holding fire on 1st dividend payment

Gabelli Value Plus+ Trust has announced its first set of interim results for the period between 19 February and 30 September 2015. During the period the trust’s NAV fell 6.4% in total return terms underperforming the S&P 500 which fell 5.5% during the period (in Sterling adjusted terms). Share price total return during the period […]

10 Nov 2015

25% tender planned for Chelverton as sells Parmenion

Chelverton Growth Trust has announced results for the year ended 31 August 2015. Unfortunately the fund underperformed its benchmark index – the net asset value rose by 6.95% while the MSCI UK Small cap Index rose by 9.77%. Since the year end though they have had some good news as their largest investment (37% of […]

10 Nov 2015

Hg selling Casa Reha

Hg Capital has announced that it has agreed the sale of Casa Reha, a leading private German provider of elderly care services, specialising in high quality, assisted living, to Euronext-listed Korian, a leading European provider of elderly health care services. Completion is subject to regulatory approval. Hg Capital Trust will realise cash proceeds of approximately […]

10 Nov 2015

Land Securities held back by retail warehouse and food store exposure

Land Securities has announced interim results covering the six months ended 30 September 2015. The adjusted diluted NAV rose 5.7% to 1367p (total return 7.0%) while the adjusted diluted EPS rose by 8.4% to 23.2p helped by a fall in vacant space within the portfolio (from 3.2% to 2.8%). The dividend is being increased by 3.2% […]

10 Nov 2015

Globalworth buys Green Court Bucharest Building B

Globalworth Real Estate Investments Ltd has announced the acquisition of Skanska’s second building in the Green Court Bucharest project. The gross transaction value is approximately Euro 47 million. Closing of the acquisition is expected in December 2015. Green Court Bucharest is a prestigious, newly built class-A office park comprising three buildings, strategically located in Bucharest’s new […]

10 Nov 2015

Ranger Direct Lending planning C share

Ranger Direct Lending, which listed in May and is still only 76% invested (as at 9 November), says it is planning a C share issue to raise up to £135m. They say they anticipate full deployment of Ranger’s equity capital by early December, within its stated target of fully deploying the net proceeds raised at IPO […]

09 Nov 2015

Securities Trust committed to dividend increase

Securities Trust of Scotland generated a return on net assets of -10.7% over the six months ended 30 September 2015. By contrast, the fund’s benchmark, MSCI World High Dividend Yield Index, returned -9.1%. The discount widened from 5.75 to 7.5% and so the return to shareholders was -12.5%. The dividend was increased from 2.3p to […]

09 Nov 2015

British Empire hit by oil and commodity exposure

British Empire underperformed its benchmark over the year that ended on 30 September 2015, delivering a total return on net assets of -8.3% against a -5.6% return for the MSCI All Country World ex-US Index. The Morningstar Investment Trust Global Index rose by 3.7% over the period. The discount widened slightly from 10.3% to 11.6% (despite them […]

09 Nov 2015

Empiric Student property expands in Cardiff

Empiric Student Property is paying £40m to acquire Windsor house in Cardiff. The property, which is Empiric’s fourth acquisition in Cardiff, is located directly opposite the Group’s existing Summit House property on Windsor Place, in the city centre within a ten-minute walk from the University of Cardiff.  Cardiff is also home to Cardiff Metropolitan University […]

06 Nov 2015

Project Finance deploying capital

Project Finance Investments has been announcing a series of deals as it deploys the money it raised in its IPO. All of the investments are made through Loan Notes issued by Project Finance Investments (UK) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. On 5 November it said it had committed to subscribe for a […]

06 Nov 2015

Shareholders approve JPMorgan Overseas stock split

JPMorgan Overseas, managed by Jeroen Huysinga (pictured), has announced that shareholders have approved the sub-division of the company’s 25p ordinary shares, on a five for one basis, into 5p ordinary shares. The sub-division is to take place following admission of any new shares to be issued in connection with the final exercise of the Company’s subscription […]

06 Nov 2015

Capital Gearing holds up in weak markets

Capital Gearing has announced interim results covering the six months to 5 October 2015. As at that date, the net asset value per share was 3,240.5p compared to 3,297.6p at the last year end on 5 April 2015, a decline of 1.7%. This compares with declines of 6.5% in the FTSE All-Share index and of […]

06 Nov 2015

Henderson Far East Income increases dividend and mildly outperforms banchmark

Henderson Far East Income has announced its results for the year ended 31 August 2015. During the period the company’s NAV total return was -11.5%, marginally outperforming its benchmark, the FTSE All-World Asia Pacific ex Japan Index, which returned -11.8%. The company moved from trading at a 0.4% premium to a 0.9% premium during the […]

06 Nov 2015

NESF proposes share issue and repurchase whilst extending credit facility to £100m

NextEnergy Solar Fund has announced plans to issue and then immediately repurchase into treasury of 30,850,000 new shares. Over time the shares can then be sold out of treasury, which the company says will give it the flexibility to raise additional capital in an “efficient and cost-effective manner”. The company says the shares will be […]

06 Nov 2015

Scottish Mortgage now 10% in unlisted investments

Scottish Mortgage has reported interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2015. It was a period of falling markets – the FTSE All-World Index fell by 11.8%. Scottish Mortgage did a little better, its NAV fell by 10.9% over the period and the share price fell by 9.7%. The interim dividend is being […]

06 Nov 2015

Kennedy Wilson Europe issues €300m bond, part of £2bn programme

Kennedy Wilson Europe is offering €300m of 3.25% senior unsecured notes due 2025 as the first part of a £2bn programme of bond issuance announced yesterday. The Euro Medium Term Note Programme allows Kennedy Wilson Europe to issue, from time to time, up to £2,000,000,000 of various types of debt securities in certain markets and currencies. Kennedy […]

06 Nov 2015

Mid cap bias helps Fidelity Special Values

Over the year to the end of August 2015, Fidelity Special Values generated a return on net assets of 7.4%, well ahead of the -2.3% return posted by its benchmark. The return to shareholders was even better at 12.4% as the discount narrowed from 6.3% to 2.0%. The dividend was increased from 3.3p to 3.35p. […]

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