News

26 Apr 2016

A good year for BlackRock Smaller Companies

During the year to 29 February 2016, BlackRock Smaller Companies’ net asset value increased by 4.0% to 992.18p per share, compared with its benchmark, the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index, which fell by 4.4%. The company’s share price increased by 6.3% to 863.00p per share. Small capitalisation stocks outperformed mid and large […]

26 Apr 2016

Redefine International NAV slips on AUK acquisition costs

Redefine International’s interim statement, covering the six months ended 29 February 2016, saw the EPRA NAV fall by 1.7% to 40.3p. Adjusting for the result of non-recourse negative equity, adjusted NAV of 40.9 pence decreased by 0.8 pence or 1.9 per cent since year-end. The underlying valuation growth of GBP4.8 million in the property portfolio […]

26 Apr 2016

Mark to market write downs weigh on NB Distressed Debt

NB Distressed Debt has announced results for the year ended 31 December 2015. NBDD’s NAV per share decreased 10.7% during the year, to $1.1184 from $1.2521 per share, compared to a drop of 8% in the HFRI Distressed/Restructuring Index and a drop of 43% in the defaulted loans segment of the S&P/LSTA Index. Similarly the Extended […]

26 Apr 2016

Scottish Mortgage plans more private equity investments

Subject to prior approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, Scottish Mortgage intends to seek shareholders’ approval, at the Annual General Meeting on 30 June, to amend the company’s investment policy to stipulate that the maximum amount which may be invested in companies not listed on a public market shall not exceed 25 per cent of […]

25 Apr 2016

Witan Pacific beats benchmark despite significant underperformance in Aberdeen portfolio

Witan Pacific’s results for the year ended 31 January 2016 show it managing to outperform its benchmark, the MSCI All Country Asia Pacific Index, by a little – the NAV return for the fund was -5.6% against -5.9% for the index. Shareholders did better than this though with a return of -3.5% as the discount narrowed […]

25 Apr 2016

Empiric buys accommodation blocks in Manchester and Southampton

Empiric Student Property has acquired the long leasehold (999 years from March 2007) of a 561 bed scheme in Manchester for £29.5m. Victoria Point, Manchester was constructed in 2009 by the vendor as a private residential scheme comprising apartments and duplexes across six separate blocks of accommodation on a 3.5 acre site.  The property has […]

25 Apr 2016

Nimrod Sea Assets says Odin Viking charterer two months behind on payments

Viking Supply Ships A/S, charterer of the ODIN VIKING, in which Nimrod Sea Assets has a 43% interest through Norseman Offshore AS (“Norseman”), is now two months overdue with respect to its charterhire payments for the vessel. Norseman has been advised that Viking Supply Ships A/S has appointed Swedbank as its financial adviser and that […]

25 Apr 2016

2015 a difficult year for debt markets says Carador

During the year ended 31 December 2015, Carador Income Fund generated a total NAV return of -9.71% including distributions. The Credit Suisse High Yield Index lost 4.93% in 2015, the fourth-worst year in its 30-year history. The Credit Suisse Leveraged Loan Index fared better but still fell 0.38%, representing only the second negative annual return in its […]

25 Apr 2016

Temporary manager for Scottish Oriental

In anticipation of a period of maternity leave for the lead portfolio manager Wee-Li Hee, the board of Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust has agreed to the appointment of Vinay Agarwal as interim lead portfolio manager for the Company, effective 20 July 2016. Mr Agarwal will be supported by Martin Lau, Scott McNab and the broader […]

25 Apr 2016

Property and infrastructure trusts see inflows in Q1

Volatility has meant that no investment trusts were launched over the first quarter of this year, while money that was raised was focused around property and infrastructure trusts, according to QuotedData. See more at: http://www.portfolio-adviser.com/news/1028797/property-infrastructure-trusts-inflows-q1#sthash.uWHsqkEA.dpuf

22 Apr 2016

Aberdeen Asian Smaller underperforms, blames Sri Lankan tax and Taiwan underweight

Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies has published figures for the six months ending 31 January 2016. The MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Small Cap Index fell by 3.0% during this period with the company’s net asset value falling by 5.0%, while the share price declined by 5.7% to 730.0p (on a total return basis), reflecting a […]

22 Apr 2016

P2P Global let down by widening discount

P2P Global has published its accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015. P2P Global says it achieved positive NAV returns in every month of 2015, delivering a total NAV return of 6.56% for the ordinary shares. The capital raised for the C shares issued in late July 2015 was deployed in Q3 and Q4 2015. […]

22 Apr 2016

Wolf shareholders approve £25 million equity facility

Wolf Minerals shareholders have approved the establishment of a standby equity facility of up to £25 million with Resource Capital Fund (RCF). The company announced the agreement with its major shareholder, which holds an interest of almost 42%, in January this year. The facility will enable Wolf to strengthen its balance sheet during the ramp-up […]

22 Apr 2016

Phaunos Timber stable and profitable at the operating level

Phaunos Timber Fund says its NAV decreased from US$321.3 million or US$0.57 per Ordinary Share to US$278.8 million or US$0.49 per Ordinary Share, a decrease of 13% over the course of 2015, reflecting the weakness of the company’s main operating currencies against the US Dollar. Revenue from timber operations and investment income increased from US$11.7 […]

22 Apr 2016

JPEL Private Equity to shift to orderly wind down

Further to JPEL Private Equity Limited’s announcement on 11 March 2016 discussing the timeline for the implementation of the realisation share class, the company announces that holders of a majority of US$ Equity Sharesc have, in recent weeks, notified the Board that they no longer support the dual continuation share class and realisation share class […]

22 Apr 2016

Baker Steel Resources Trust makes up some ground against benchmark

Baker Steel Resources Trust has published its results for 2015. The Euromoney Global Mining Index fell 39.3% in Sterling terms during the year and at 31 December 2015 was down 68.2% from the date of the Company’s first Net Asset Value (NAV) on 30 April 2010. By comparison, the Company’s NAV per share fell 25.4% […]

22 Apr 2016

Blackstone/GSO delivers 8% return for 2015

Blackstone/GSO Loan Financing has published its accounts for 2015 (figures are in Euros unless otherwise indicated). The fund returned just over 8% for the year. Over the period its NAV fell from 99 cents to 98.39 cents and its share price fell from 101 cents to 98 cents. BGLF paid dividends of 8 cents (2 cents […]

22 Apr 2016

Hammerson secures £420m revolving credit facility

Hammerson has announced the successful syndication and signing of a £420 million unsecured Revolving Credit Facility at an initial margin of 90 basis points with a syndicate of eight international banks. This new facility will refinance the existing £150 million Revolving Credit Facility which would have matured in April 2017 which featured a margin of 150 basis […]

21 Apr 2016

John Laing Environmental Assets placing to raise up to £65m

John Laing Environmental Assets has announced that it is proposing to raise up to £65m by way of a cash placing of new ordinary shares to institutional investors. The company says that the net proceeds of the Placing will be used to repay the Company’s facility to provide capital for pipeline acquisitions. On 17 March, […]

21 Apr 2016

Prospect Japan benefits from stake in management company

Prospect Japan Fund, which reports its results in US dollar terms, says that for 2015, it achieved a gain, in Dollar terms, of 19.13% as against the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index increase of 15.74%. The Yen:Dollar exchange rate at 31 December, 2015 was virtually unchanged from a year earlier. The largest contributors to 2015 […]

21 Apr 2016

Henderson Far East Income benefits from sterling weakness

Henderson Far East Income says its net asset value total return per ordinary share was 5.8% for the six months ended 29 February 2016. This compares favourably with the 3.9% total return on the FTSE All-World Asia Pacific ex Japan Index (sterling adjusted) over the same period. The share price total return per ordinary share […]

21 Apr 2016

Premier Energy and Water Trust is looking to grow

Premier Energy and Water Trust has announced that it has published a prospectus in connection with a placing programme. Shareholders approved the scheme, which allows for the company to issue up to 20m shares, at a general meeting on 19 April 2016. The company’s board say that it will enable them to promptly respond to investor demand […]

20 Apr 2016

Foreign & Colonial takes on long-term debt

 Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust has agreed to issue fixed rate senior unsecured private placement notes in tranches of (i) GBP25 million principal with a 12 year tenor, at a coupon of 2.80% and (ii) GBP50m principal with a 15 year tenor, at a coupon of 3.16%.  The funding date for the notes is expected […]

20 Apr 2016

BlackRock Greater European subscription share exercise on knife edge

BlackRock Greater European says its undiluted net asset value per share increased by 2.1%, compared with a decrease of 0.8% in the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index. Over the same period, the Company’s share price rose by 3.2% (all percentages calculated in sterling terms with income reinvested). Since the period end to 18 April 2016, the […]

20 Apr 2016

JPMorgan Elect is rollover vehicle for JPMorgan Income & Growth

The Board of JPMorgan Elect has announced that heads of terms have been agreed with the board of JPMorgan Income & Growth Investment Trust in relation to that company’s forthcoming reconstruction. JPMorgan Income & Growth, with £67.4m of net assets, has a fixed life and is due to wind up on or around 30 November […]

19 Apr 2016

Standard Life Investments Property Income had a great 2015

Standard Life Investments Property Income delivered both strong NAV and share price performance over the course of 2015. The NAV total return for the year was 15.5%, driven by strong capital growth in the property portfolio. The share price total return was 15.5% and the Company’s shares continued to trade at a premium to NAV of […]

19 Apr 2016

Jupiter Dividend & Growth beats UK market by some margin

Jupiter Dividend & Growth Trust outperformed the FTSE All-Share Index by some margin in 2015 – the total assets rose by 6.9% against a 2.5% fall in the index (both capital only).  The fund has zero dividend preference shares, whose net asset value rose by 7%; ordinary income shares, whose asset value rose marginally from […]

19 Apr 2016

Third Point Offshore NAV slips in 2015

During 2015, the Third Point Offshore’s net asset value depreciated approximately 3% across both share classes (-2.58% on the US dollar share class and -2.92% on the Sterling share class). The performance was driven primarily by negative returns in the long equity portfolio managed by Third Point LLC (the “Investment Manager”) in the volatile investment environment […]