Schroder European Real Estate sells two French supermarkets – Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust says that the Casino Group, the French retailer, has exercised a buy-back option on the fund’s 70% share in two retail assets in France. The sale price reflects a 10% premium to current valuation. Schroder European Real Estate acquired the […]

Hammerson sells Battery Retail Park in Birmingham – Hammerson plc has exchanged contracts for the sale of Battery Retail Park, Birmingham, to NFU Mutual for GBP57.5 million. The retail park, covering a total of 12,600m(2) , is located in Selly Oak, south west of Birmingham city centre. Built in 1990, Battery Retail Park has benefitted […]

Templeton loses Carlos Hardenberg – Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust says that, with immediate effect, Mr. Chetan Sehgal, senior managing director, director of portfolio management overseeing the global emerging markets strategy at Franklin Templeton, has been appointed lead portfolio manager of Templeton Emerging Markets. They say that he will be further supported by an experienced […]

Hibernia REIT buys office in Dublin South Docks – Hibernia REIT has announced that it has exchanged contracts to acquire 77 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay for EUR28.7m. 77 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, which was marketed by Savills, is a six storey office building of 34,400 sq. ft. with 20 basement car parking spaces which was constructed […]

Tak Lee opposes Shaftesbury fundraise – On 30 January Shaftesbury announced that it had received a statement from Mr. Samuel Tak Lee, the ultimate beneficial owner of a 25.02% stake in the company.  The statement indicates that the shares ultimately owned by Mr. Samuel Tak Lee will be voted against the following resolutions to be proposed at […]

PRS REIT plans to expand – PRS REIT has made a number of announcements recently. Maiden Dividend The board has declared a maiden dividend of 1.5p for the period to 31 December 2017. The company is targeting a total dividend of 5.0p for the period ending 30 June 2018, and 5.0p for the year from 1 July 2018 […]

Sequoia board brings in external consultants – in an unusual move, the board of Sequoia Economic Infrastructure has appointed independent consultants to advise the board on risk management and overview the manager’s investment decisions. They say that “As independent consultants, Tim Drayson and Kate Thurman will provide guidance to the board on the overall approach to […]

BlackRock Commodities Income sticks with lower dividend – Over the year to 30 November 2017, BlackRock Commodities Income delivered a negative return on net assets of 3.2% and the share price return was -4.4%. Over the same period, the Euromoney Global Mining Index rose by 8.9% and the MSCI World Energy Index fell by 4.1% […]

Henderson Opportunities returns to form – Henderson Opportunities says that its NAV total return for the year ended 31 October 2017 was 29.5%, while the All-Share returned 13.4%. This strong outperformance more than recovered the shortfall in the preceding year, in which the NAV total return was 0.4% whereas the benchmark total return was 12.2%. During […]

ICG Longbow updates on loan portfolio – ICG Longbow is pleased to announce that it has agreed to fund an increase and extension to an existing loan secured by a North London retail park (the “Meadow Loan”). The increase, which takes the aggregate loan to GBP20 million, is on substantially the same terms and conditions […]

Carillion hit varies across infrastructure funds – on 15 January 2018, as Carillion entered liquidation, HICL Infrastructure announced that “a contingency plan has already been developed that specifically contemplated a scenario where Carillion enters liquidation and InfraRed has been working for some time with a number of potential replacement service providers. The contingency plan has […]

Ranger Direct Board asks Kinmont to review management arrangements – Ranger Direct Lending put in place a management contract at the time of its IPO with Ranger Alternative Management II, LP. The initial term finishes on 1 May 2018 and then there is a rolling one year notice period thereafter.  On 1 November 2017, the Board announced that it, in conjunction […]

Honeycomb provides funding to GLI Finance – The board of GLI Finance has announced that the company has signed a new funding facility with Honeycomb Investment Trust. The funding line has a term of 3 years and comprises a GBP50 million accordion and revolving credit facility, of which GBP20 million will be drawn and deployed […]

GCP Infrastructure provides solar funding – The board of GCP Infrastructure says that the company has subscribed for three new loan notes for a consideration of c.GBP105 million. The loan notes, with an expected term ranging between 22 and 24 years, will be used to provide funding for the acquisition of twenty two ground mounted and […]

JPMorgan Income and Capital finds a MATE – On 17 October 2017, JPMorgan Income & Capital Trust announced, in its interim results, that it was considering offering shareholders a rollover option into a new multi-asset investment trust as an alternative to liquidating their shares for cash to coincide with the end of the company’s fixed […]

UK Commercial Property sells shopping centres to Shropshire Council – UK Commercial Property Trust Limited has completed the sale of its three retail centres in Shrewsbury town centre to Shropshire Council for approximately GBP51 million, representing a small premium to book value. The three assets comprise the Charles Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside shopping centres […]

SQN Asset Finance Income Fund (SQN) has provided an update on Suniva, in which it notes that the White House has now announced protective measures, which it says are aiming to ensure the long-term viability of the US solar cell manufacturing industry. It says that this action is intended to restore a fair and competitive […]

Ediston sees 4.8% uplift on property portfolio – Ediston Property Investment Company has announced its full year results for the year ended 30 September 2017. NAV per share at 30 September 2017 of 111.32 pence (30 September 2016: 107.07 pence), an increase of 4.0% after taking into account capital expenditure and transaction costs Fair value […]

Trinity Capital gets cash for last investment – Trinity Capital Plc says that, following the announcement made on 10 November 2017, its wholly owned subsidiary, Trinity Capital Mauritius Limited (“TCML”) has received from Trinity Capital (Ten) Limited (“TC-10”) an amount of GBP1.7 million. These monies constitute the proceeds from the disposal of TCML’s last remaining […]

Aseana Properties wants to keep going – At an extraordinary general meeting held on 22 June 2015, shareholders voted in favour of Aseana Properties’ Board’s proposals to amend the  investment policy to enable a realisation of the ssets in a controlled, orderly and timely manner. As part of that vote, the company committed to dispose of all its […]

Contrasting movements likely for Biotech Growth Trust investees Orbimed-managed Biotech Growth Trust (BIOG) looks set to see some contrasting fortunes for key investments in its January update, due in the middle of next month, but could nevertheless be able to offer investors a positive report.  On the plus side, the trust will have seen its investment […]

CIP Merchant Capital takes Saffron Energy stake – CIP Merchant Capital has made its first investment following its admission to trading on AIM in December 2017, agreeing to subscribe for, in aggregate, GBP6.0 million worth of shares in Saffron Energy Plc. Saffron is an AIM quoted European gas company with interests in Northern Italy. It is […]

HBM Healthcare tops biotech trust league in 2017 Swiss-listed HBM Healthcare Investments (HBMN.S) can claim to have been the best performing biotech-specialist closed-end fund  in 2017, according to an analysis by Marten & Co. The CHF1.1bn trust run by Swiss healthcare investment specialist HBM saw its share price rise from CHF99 to CHF134 last year […]

JPMorgan Russian dividend up 50% as it beats benchmark – The Russian market was up by 8.4% over the year ended 31 October 2017 (benchmark index RTS).  JPMorgan Russian’s return on a net assets basis outperformed the benchmark by 1.4% returning 9.8%. The return to shareholders also outperformed the benchmark, with a rise of 13.1% […]

Chenavari Toro suspends buybacks until it can find other buyers – Chenavari Toro Income Fund says that, for the year ended 30 September 2017: The NAV total return was 8.92% and the share price total return was 10.75% (2016: 3.27% and -15.23% respectively). During the year, the NAV increased by 2.54% (2016: -4.10%) to close at 99.85 […]

Princess Private Equity has announced that Partners Group, the investment advisor to Princess Private Equity Holding (Princess), has agreed the sale of Trimco International Holdings Limited (Trimco), to funds advised by Affinity Equity Partners. The sale is for a total consideration of USD$520m, generating a 3.4x return on the original investment for Partners Group’s programs. […]

Dolphin Capital sells Sitia Bay project – Dolphin Capital Investors says that it has entered, on 18 January 2018, into an agreement for the disposal of its 77.8% interest in the Sitia Bay Resort project, the Group’s residential resort development in Sitia, eastern Crete, to its minority partner in the project, Iktinos Hellas S.A. EUR1.4m […]

JPMorgan Income and Capital liquidates portfolio ahead of possible rollover – JPMorgan Income & Capital Trust launched as a split capital trust in March 2008 with a fixed life ending on 28 February 2018 (the “Termination Date”). The Company’s portfolio (the “Portfolio”) has seen strong performance in recent months and, in light of the upcoming […]

Investment Trust Insider on Scottish Mortgage – The investment company industry had a good 2017. Money flooded into the sector; we got a couple of new and potentially fast-growing sub-sectors in the form of social housing and biotech debt; discounts narrowed; and, in general, performance was pretty good. By my reckoning, the average equity-focused investment […]

Investment Trust Insider – trusts that didn’t escape me last year.  As 2018 gets underway, I thought that it might be worth revisiting some of the funds that I wrote about in 2017. At the start of the year I hailed the changes that Standard Life Private Equity (SLPE) was implementing to broaden its investment proposition and noted the increasing […]