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).
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).
Over the year to the end of March 2014, Oryx International Growth’s net asset value rose by 43.1% – outpacing the FTSE Small Cap Index by some margin (the index returned 17.5%). The main drivers of performance within the quoted portfolio were Essenden (the ten pin bowling company), up 200%; MJ Gleeson, up over 90%; Goals Soccer Centres, up over […]
Duet Real Estate Finance has announced that “loan 13” has been fully realised (because the underlying asset that it was secured against has been sold) and that the return on the investment was “in-line with its investment criteria”. Whilst that statement is not too informative, Duet Real Estate Finance has said that the net effect of […]
Empiric Student Property has made its first acquisition since listing on 30 June. It has announced that it spent £31m on three properties – College Green in Bristol (an 84 bed long leasehold property bought for £9.97m at a net initial yield of 6.4%); Picturehouse Apartments in Exeter (a 102 bed freehold property, pictured, acquired […]
International Public Partnerships has bought 72% of the second phase of Nottingham’s Building Schools for the Future portfolio. They already held 10% of this so this takes their stake to 82%. INPP is buying this form Carillion Private Finance for £2.75m. The project comprises the Farnborough School and Technology College and caters for over 1000 […]
Jupiter Second Split has announced its interim results. Over the six months to the end of April 2014, the value of its portfolio was barely changed – off by 0.1%. As the zero dividend preference share NAV grew, so the net asset value of the geared ordinary shares fell – by 8.3% during this six month […]
Target Healthcare REIT is acquiring a new, purpose-built, £6m care home in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The 72 bedroom home will be leased to Care Concern Group for 35 years on a lease that brings Target Healthcare REIT an initial 7% yield and increases in rent each year in line with RPI (subject to a cap and collar). […]
F&C Private Equity will replace its zero dividend preference share issue with a new debt facility. The ZDPs mature in December this year and the Board of F&C Private Equity has concluded that the most cost effective and flexible way of funding this and maintaining some modest level of gearing within the fund is to […]
Polar Capital Technology has published results for the year ended 30 April 2014 that show its net assets growing by 11.2% and its share price by 10.9% but both lagging the increase in the Dow jones World Technology Index of 13.1%. Very strong gains and outperformance of the index were given up in the last six […]
Aberdeen New Dawn has published figures for the year that ended 30 April 2014. Over the year the trust’s net asset value return was -8.9%, a bit worse than the benchmark (MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex Japan index) total return of -6.8%. Unfortunately the discount widened and the return to shareholders was -14.0%. The […]
Custodian REIT has added further to its property portfolio with the acquisition of two modern industrial units on the 100 acre Estuary Commerce Park, Speke, Liverpool (next to Liverpool John Lennon International Airport) for £3.1m, equivalent to a net initial yield of 7.7%. Unit C is let to Powder Systems Limited on a 20 year […]
Tau Capital has published its results for the year to the end of December 2013. These are somewhat academic now but, for what it’s worth, its NAV declined from $0.53 to $0.30. Since the year end its investment in Stopharm has been written down further.
PME Africa has published its results for the year ended 31 December 2013 and has also announced that it intends to make a transformative deal that would result in it becoming a trading company. Over 2013 PMEA’s net asset value rose to $0.46 from $0.39. It bought back a quarter of its share capital at […]
Trading Emissions is in dispute with Chinese counterparties to CER (Certified Emission Reduction) Transaction Agreements. Two claims came in in March – these total €6m and were disclosed in Trading Emission’s accounts. On 23 June they received claims totalling €18m relating to four agreements. The company thinks these claims are “unjustified and is rigorously defending them”.
After selling a shopping centre in Sunderland, Land Securities is spending the proceeds on a 30% stake in Bluewater. The purchase price is £656m, the seller is Lend Lease and Land securities are also paying £40m for the rights to manage the whole centre and the adjoining land (110 acres). The purchase price equates to […]
Gresham House has announced that a group of individuals have come forward with a set of proposals to put to Gresham’s shareholders as an alternative to liquidating the fund. The group consists of Tony Dalwood (ex manager of Strategic Equity Capital), Michael Phillips (ex chief executive of Iimia – which is now Miton, Anthony Townsend (ex […]
Dunedin Enterprise is making a £5.9m investment in EV Offshore Limited which designs, manufactures and provides high performance, ruggedised video cameras that are used to diagnose and analyse problems in oil and gas wells. EV Offshore is based in Aberdeen and Norwich and exports around the world.
The interim results for Henderson Opportunities Trust (for the six months ended 30 April 2014) show the net asset value total return outperforming the FTSE All-Share Index – NAV +7.0%, benchmark +2.7%. The return to shareholders was even better +14.1%. The dividend was increased by 12.1% to 3.7p. The biggest positive impacts ion the portfolio […]
Baker Steel Resources Trust has bought $2.5m of convertible loans to ZAO Argentum and 500 shares in Polar Silver Resources Limited for £ 1.32m. It is paying for this by issuing 2,259,357 new ordinary shares at 58.5p (equivalent to the latest NAV). Polar Silver is a holding company which holds 100% of ZAO Argentum, which in turn is the holder […]
F&C Global Smaller Companies, as disclosed in its annual results, is considering an issue of loan stock to replace its existing long-term debt. The terms of the proposed issue have been disclosed today – £40m worth of 3.5% convertible unsecured loan stock, the coupon payable semi-annually in January and July (first payment on 31 January […]
BlackRock Income & Growth has published figures for the six months to the end of April 2014. The net asset value total return for the period was 4.1% vs. 2.6% for the FTSE All-Share Index. The return to shareholders was 2.6% (the discount widened from 0.9% to 2.4%). The dividend was increased by 10% to 2.2p. […]
Greencoat UK Wind is buying two wind farms, dipping into its credit line to do so (it will have borrowed £135m after the transactions complete – about 27% of gross assets) Kildrummy has a capacity of 18.4MW and was commissioned in May 2013. The farm, which is in Aberdeenshire, has a forecast net load factor […]
Land Securities has sold the 550,000 sq ft Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland for £152m – equivalent to an initial yield of 6.9%. Land Securities bought the centre in 1993 but is selling as it says the centre does not fall within its strategic focus and so it is taking advantage of strong market conditions to sell […]
Utilico Emerging Markets has announced its results covering the year that ended 31 March 2014. The net asset value fell over the period but outperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets total Return Index (which fell by 9.6% vs. UEM’s fall of 3.4%). They say Sterling strength took 14.2% off their performance for the year. Revenue declined […]
Montanaro UK Smaller Companies’ results for the year ended 31 March 2014 show the fund lagging the Numis Smaller Companies Index by some margin – generating a return on net assets of 11% vs. 23% for the benchmark. The discount did narrow however (from 16% to 13%) and so the return to shareholders was 16%. […]
Lindsell Train Investment Trust has published results for the year that ended 31 March 2014. These show that the net asset value return for the year was 13.0% vs. 4.3% for the fund’s benchmark and 9% for the MSCI World Index (in Sterling terms). The share price did even better – generating a return of 16.0% […]
Phaunos Timber Fund announced this morning that it intends to appoint Stafford Timberland Limited as managers of the fund. They want to press on with restructuring the company and stick to the planned continuation vote in 2016. Phaunos say they will not be updating the net asset value before the annual valuation date at 31 […]
Hansa Trust has published its annual results for the year that ended on 31 March 2014. It announced a the results of a strategic review in April that will, over time, change the way that the company is managed in the future. Over the year Hansa’s net asset value rose by 12.3% while the FTSE All-Share Index […]
The year to 31 March 2014 saw Aberdeen Private Equity’s net asset value little changed – generating a negative net asset value return of 0.2%. The share price total return though was -10.0%. Good performance from Thoma Bravo IX – as it exited Roadnet (vehicle routing and scheduling software) and Entrust (a digital security business); Northzone VI – on continuing progress at […]
Jupiter Green Investment Trust has published its results for the year that ended 31 March 2014. Over that period the fund outperformed the MSCI World Small cap. Index – the net asset value was up 16.5% compared to a 10.7% rise in the index. Shareholders also benefited from a narrowing of the fund’s discount (the […]
RENN Universal Growth has published its annual accounts covering the year to the end of March 2014. Over the period the net asset value rose in US dollar terms but fell as Sterling strengthened against the dollar (up 2.1% in US dollars and down 7% in pounds). The Board directors decided to prepare the accounts on a […]