News

PLI :  Perpetual Income & Growth beats benchmark Over the six months to the end of September Perpetual Income & Growth generated a 2.2% return on net assets. There was a small widening of the discount so the share price return was 1.6%. By contrast the return on the company’s benchmark was 1.2%. The dividend was […]

TEM : Good stock selection helps Templeton outperform Templeton Emerging Markets interim figures for the six months ended 30 September came in ahead of its benchmark. The fund delivered a net asset value total return of 8.2% while the MSCI Emerging markets Index returned 6.1%. Shareholders did even better as the discount narrowed so that the share […]

LAND : Land Securities buys out partner in Thomas More Square Land Securities is paying £85.3m to buy out its 50% joint venture partner in the Thomas More Square estate of offices and retail space in east London. The estate, which sits by the river between St. Katherine’s Dock and London Dock, covers 4.2 acres and currently […]

ESP : Empiric raises £65m and invests in Huddersfield Empiric Student Property has just raised £66m from investors through a placing and offer for subscription of shares and has already spent some of this on a new student accommodation block in Huddersfield. 65m shares were placed with institutional investors or sold through an offer for […]

NRR : Good progress at New River Retail New River Retail’s EPRA net asset value rose by 14% over the six months to the end of September 2014. Earnings per share rose from 6.5p to 6.8p and they upped the dividend to 8.5p from 6p (they have also started paying quarterly dividends). Occupancy across the […]

JLEN : Everything on track at John Laing Environmental John Laing Environmental Assets has published its first set of figures since it listed in March, covering the period up to the end of September 2014. They raised £160m and invested all of that into seven environmental infrastructure assets on nine sites. The initial net asset […]

BYG : Big Yellow expanding in Oxford and Cambridge Big Yellow has announced its interim figures for the six months ended 30 September 2014. Big Yellow’s net asset value rose from 436.3p to 461.9p and its interim dividend was raised from 10.1p to 13.0p. Year on year occupancy increased from 70.5% to 75.2% and they drove […]

FCSS : Fidelity China boosted by Alibaba Fidelity China Special Situations beat the MSCI China Index by 6.7% over the six months ended 30 September 2014, returning 16.8% vs. 10.1% for the Index. The company’s shares returned 14.3% as the discount widened a little – from 9.6% to 11.7%. Fairly high levels of gearing boosted […]

FRCL : Foreign & Colonial to redeem its debenture Foreign & Colonial has £110m of debenture stock outstanding that was issued in 1989 and falls due for repayment on 31 December 2014. The Board have announced today that this will be redeemed at par on 31 December. This is good news for ordinary shareholders as […]

HICL : Good first half for HICL driven by imminent disposal HICL Infrastructure’s interims for the six months ended 30 September show a decent increase in the net asset value over the period. The net assets value rose by 7.4% to 130.5p and the dividend was increased to 3.62p from 3.5p the previous year – they […]

BKSA : Black Sea Property requisition The Board of Black Sea Property has published a response to a requisition it has received requesting that it not wind up, recommence investing in Bulgarian property and appoint a new fund manager. The response is quite detailed so we have reproduced it in full below. Dear Shareholders, Fitel Nominees, […]

PCTN : Good first half for Picton Picton Property Income’s net asset value rose from 56p to 62p over the six months that finished on 30 September 2014, aided by an uplift in the value of the property portfolio of 6.8%. They are maintaining the interim dividend at 1.5p. This translate into a return on net […]

MCKS : McKay Securities busy investing cash raised in February McKay Securities has published its interim report which covers the six months that ended on 30 September 2014. Over that period McKay’s EPRA net asset value rose by 5.7%, driven by a 4.8% return on its property portfolio. McKay is maintaining its interim dividend at […]

AJIT : Early success for Aberdeen Japan Aberdeen Japan has beaten its new benchmark index by some margin since it adopted its new mandate in October 2013. Over that period its net asset value rose by 17.6% vs. a 3.5% increase in the TOPIX Index. Over the six months that ended on 30 September 2014 […]

BLND : Above market growth in asset value for British Land British Land’s interim report for the six months ended 30 September 2014 shows 11.8% growth in its net asset value to 769p with property values up 7.2% and total returns on property of 9.8% for the period. Underlying profits were 6.2% ahead at £155m, with […]

SCF : Schroder Income Growth change to investment policy Schroder Income Growth’s annual report for the year that ended on 31 August 2014 is out. they upped the dividend by 3.1% (well ahead of the 1.5% increase in the CPI – inflation beating dividend increases are part of Schroder Income Growth’s objective). The total return […]

STS : Securities Trust of Scotland underperforms in first half Securities Trust of Scotland lagged its benchmark (MSCI World High Dividend Yield Index) by 2.4% over the six months that ended on 30 September 2014 – making a 2.6% total return on net assets. The Chairman said stock selection was the predominant reason behind underperformance, particularly within the […]

SHRS : Dollar weakness food price competition restraining Shires Income Over the six months that ended on 30 September 2014 Shires Income generated a 1.6% return on net assets – just ahead of the 1.2% return on the FTSE All-Share Index. It moved from trading at a 1.6% premium to a 1.8% discount however and […]

OPP : Brooks MacDonald requisitions Origo meeting On Friday Brooks MacDonald’s spat with Origo reached a new high as it requisitioned a meeting of Origo’s shareholders at which it will propose that all of Origo’s directors, with the exception of Chris Rynning (the Chief Executive), are removed and Brett Miller and Rhys Davies appointed instead […]

NSA : Nimrod Sea Assets adds two platform supply vessels Nimrod Sea Assets is spending $24.4m on a 75% stake in two new platform supply vessels (PSVs), $12.75m now and the balance next April when the second of the two boats is complete. They will be chartered and operated by Fletcher Shipping ( designation: FS Cygnus, […]

QIL : Qannas investing in new financial services company Qannas Investments is spending $20.4m to acquire up to 50% of a new financial services company, Integrated Financial Group.  Integrated Financial Group is being set up to acquire First Gulf Financial Services LLC (in the course of being renamed Integrated Securities), which is in the business […]

TRIG : Renewables Infrastructure buys Kirkcaldy wind farm The Renewables Infrastructure Group is paying £32m to acquire a 16MW wind farm at Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. The Earlseat wind farm has eight Vestas V90 2.0 MW wind turbines and was grid-connected in June 2014. The farm is subsidised to the tune of 0.9 ROCs per MWh and […]

SREI : Schroder Real Estate may become a REIT Schroder Real Estate has published its interims figures for the six months ended on 30 September 2014. Over that period the net asset value rose by 13.4% to 55.1p on the back of a 12.7% increase in the value of the property portfolio (by contrast the […]

HVTR : Boardroom row at Henderson Value Trust The Chairman of Henderson Value Trust has resigned and given an interview to a Sunday Telegraph journalist following a row in the Board room about whether to publish the results of a report detailing the illiquidity of some of the funds holding (as it approaches the date […]

SLET : Decent returns from Standard Life Equity Income Over the year to the end of September 2014 Standard Life Equity Income managed to beat its benchmark index delivering a total return on net assets of 6.9% and a return to shareholders of 6.3% vs. a 6.1% return on the FTSE All-Share Index. The dividend […]

GLIF : GLI buying out rest of Sancus GLI Finance is to buy out the other shareholders in Sancus in a deal that values Sancus and its portfolio of loans at £37.75m. £17.75m of the purchase price will be paid in 31.4m new shares in GLI Finance worth £17.75m (valuing those shares at 56.5p). GLI will […]

3IN : 3i Infrastructure completes French prison deal 3i Infrastructure has announced that the deal to build a new prison, La Sante, in Paris, that was referred to in its recent interim statement, has now been completed. It will invest €11.7m to take an 80% stake in the project. The La Santé primary PPP project (the […]

GLIF : GLI Finance takes stake in Ovamba Solutions GLI Finance has announced that it is investing $1.28m to take a 20% stake in Ovamba Solutions, an African peer-to-peer business investment platform. Ovamba is the first peer-to-business lending platform in francophone Africa, and also one of the first market lending platforms to offer investment opportunities […]

BBOX : Tritax Big Box buys Doncaster distribution centre Tritax Big Box REIT is buying The Range UK National Distribution Centre at Nimbus Park, Thorne, Doncaster for a purchase price of £48.5m (a net initial yield of 6.1%). Thorne is about 7 miles to the north east of Doncaster town centre, adjacent to the M18 motorway and […]

III : 3i continues to shrink private equity portfolio 3i’s net asset value rose by 10p to 358p over the six months that ended on 30 September 2014 and, in addition, it paid a 13.3p dividend to shareholders in July – this works out at a total return for the period of 7.1%. It plans […]