News

Polo Resources has just got round to publishing its results for the year that ended on 30 June. In what is actually quite a comprehensive report on the current state of the business, the NAV per shares at the end of June isn’t mentioned (total equity net of all liabilities was $143.6m at the end […]

Artemis Alpha Trust has reported results for the six months ended 31 October 2014. this was a difficult period for UK Smaller Companies with the FTSE Small Cap Index falling by 6% and the FTSE AIM All-Share Index falling by 11.9%. The FTSE All-Share Index fell by 1.6%. Artemis Alpha managed to increase its net […]

CQS Diversified has announced its results for the year ended 30 September 2014. the net asset value of the Sterling class of shares rose by 2.1% over that period and they paid dividends of 1p per quarter. The US dollar class was wound up in September after it failed its continuation vote. Now the Board […]

The year to the end of October 2014 was a difficult one for shareholders in Dunedin Smaller Companies. It underperformed its benchmark a little – generating a return on net assets of -3.6% against the FTSE Small Cap.’s -2.4% but notably its discount widened from 4.4% to 16.9% resulting in a return to shareholders of -16.2%. On […]

Over the half year to the end of October 2014 F&C Global Smaller Companies delivered a return on net assets of 4.4% and a return to shareholders of 4.9%. The Company’s Benchmark is a blended index of the returns from the MSCI All Country World ex UK Small Cap Index (70%) and Numis UK Smaller […]

Hg Capital is buying A-Plan insurance from Equistone Partners. The trust is contributing £14.9m of its money to the deal. A-Plan Insurance was founded in 1963 and is based in Oxfordshire. It provides products from a wide range of insurers, including SME commercial, motor and home, and high net worth insurance.  A-Plan currently operates 73 branches […]

JP Morgan Indian Investment Trust results for the year ended 30 September 2014 have been published. It was a great year for the trust as it delivered a return on net assets of 38.9% and a return to shareholders of 44.4%, both ahead of the 37.5% return on the MSCI India Index. The manager’s report […]

Schroder Asia Pacific results for the year ended 30 September 2014 show the fund delivering a return on net asset value of 10.9% and a return to shareholders of 11.2%, both ahead of the MSCI All Countries Asia ex. Japan Index, the fund’s benchmark, which returned 8.4%. The final dividend is 2.75p. The manager’s report […]

Invesco Asia outperformed its benchmark by some margin over the six months that finished on 31 October 2014. The net asset value total return was 17.6% and the return to shareholders 16.6% – these compare favourably to a 10.3% return on the benchmark (MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex Japan Index (total return), expressed in […]

Custodian REIT has announced that it is paying £1.2m for a parcel of development land in Portishead. The 1.48 acre site will be used for the development of three retail warehouse/leisure units with construction to be phased over an expected seven month build period. The units have been pre-let to JD Wetherspoon plc on a 25 […]

Over the six months to the end of October 2014, the gearing effect provided by its zero dividend preference shares worked against Smaller Companies Dividend Trust as small cap. values fell. The MSCI Small Cap. Index fell in value by 3.1% over the period while Smaller Companies Dividend Trust’s net asset value fell by 5.9%. […]

Spark Ventures interim results fro the six months to the end of September 2014 show a net asset value of 6.1p. It sold part of its stake in IMI Mobile but the balance is locked up until June 2015. The rest of the portfolio is supposed to be sold off by the end of March 2015 […]

BlackRock North American Income results for the year that ended on 31 October 2014 show the fund’s net asset value underperforming its benchmark. Over the period the total return on net asset value was 11.8%, 5.1% less than the return generated by the Russell 1000 Index. Shareholders though were also impacted as the shares moved from […]

Over the year to the end of September 2014, Henderson European Focus Trust’s net asset value total return was 14.5% – well ahead of the return generated by its benchmark, the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index. Shareholders did even better, with a return of 19.3%. It even beat its peer group by a significant […]

Infrastructure India has published interim results for the six months ended on 30 September 2014. Over this period its net asset value fell from 62p to 43p – a fall of 31%. This was largely the consequence of a dilutive issue of shares at a price less than asset value in August. Unfortunately all these shares […]

Lowland, managed by James Henderson (pictured), has published its results for the year that ended on 30 September 2014. Over this period the fund generated a total return on net assets of 5.7% – a little bit below the return on the FTSE All-Share Index of 6.1%. The dividend was increased by 8.8% to 37p, paid […]

Crystal Amber, managed by Richard Bernstein (pictured), has been consulting its shareholders about expanding the fund. Crystal Amber buys stakes in companies that it thinks can benefit from a bit of self-help or active engagement by Crystal Amber. It points to its three year track record (65% NAV growth and 85% share price growth) and says […]

MedicX has published results for the year ended 30 September 2014. Over that period its net asset value fell from 69.4p to 65.3p – about 6%. It paid dividends of 5.8p (up from 5.7p for the year before), so the total return on NAV was positive but these dividends were not covered by earnings and […]

Land Securities has announced the sale of ‘The Centre’ and the ‘Almondvale West Retail Park’ in Livingston  to HSBC Alternative Investments for £224.1m. The sale reflects Land Securities strategy of refocusing its shopping centre portfolio on ‘dominant regional and Greater London assets’. ‘ The Centre’ is Scotland’s second-largest covered shopping and is home to over 160 retailers. ‘Almondvale West […]

Lyxor Focus, the LSE listed fund of hedge funds, has announced details of an EGM, scheduled for 30 December 2014, in which shareholders will consider a resolution to wind up the company. Assuming the resolution passes, it is intended that Lyxor’s listing on the LSE will also be cancelled with effect of the close of the market […]

Terra Catalyst Fund‘s sole remaining material holding is its  72.4% holding in Spazio Investments NV, an Italian registered Fund which invests in Italian property. This follows on from the sale of TCF’s holdings in the Tamar European Industrial Fund and Rugby estates earlier this year. Spazio is being held on TCF’s balance sheet at €6.43, unchanged […]

Summit Germany, the German commercial real estate company, has provided a trading update with a number of key developments. The first is that it has agreed terms to refinance €268m of its €309m debt facilities. This includes a new €240m, 7 year, 3.4% debt facility (the current loan is at 3.9%) which is expected to be in place by […]

Finsbury Growth & Income Trust, managed by Nick Train (pictured), has published its annual results for the year ended 30 September 3014, which confirm another year of outperformance relative to its FTSE All-Share Benchmark. FGT provided an NAV total return of 8.6%, comfortably ahead of the benchmark’s 6.1%.  A second interim dividend of 6.2p has been […]

Promethean has announced that it will enter voluntary liquidation and its shares have been suspended from trading on AIM. Grant Thornton were appointed as liquidators. The proceeds will be returned to shareholders PTH : Another minnow disappearing

Tritax Big Box REIT has announced the acquisition of two more distribution centres – one at Dove Valley Park,  Derby and the other at Trafford Park in Manchester for a combined price of £55.1m, equivalent to a blended net initial yield of 6.53%, assuming 5.8% purchase costs. Completion of both purchases is expected to take place by 12 […]

Standard Life European Private Equity Trust has published its results for the year that ended 30 September 2014. the total return on its net asset value for the year was 7.7%. They are paying a dividend of 5p per share and the Board have said they intend to try to at least maintain that level […]

Over the year to the end of October 2014 Scottish Investment Trust generated a return of 1% on net assets – in-line with the return on the FTSE All-Share Index over that period but well behind the 8.8% return posted by the FTSE All World Index (a large proportion of SCIN’s assets are invested overseas). […]