News

Empiric Student Property acquires additional Birmigham student accomodation for £12m. Empiric Student Property has exchanged contracts to acquire an 106 bed, student accommodation property, on Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham for £12m. Located within five minutes walk of the University of Birmingham, the freehold “Mansion Brook” property is next to “Edge Apartments” that ESP has also agreed to purchase. Collegiate […]

Picton Property Income has acquired a distribution warehouse in Rushden, Northamptonshire, for £20m. The 312,000 square foot warehouse is currently leased to electrical component manufacturer Belkin, until April 2020, and the transaction represents an initial yield of 7.7%. Following this purchase, Picton has now largely deployed the proceeds, that were allocated to new asset purchases, from the £35m fundraising […]

Infrastructure India has announced proposals to raise up to $102m (c £60m) by way of a placing at a price of 18p per share (closing price on 14 July = 14.5p). An EGM is being held on 11 August to seek the necessary authority from shareholders. IIP is an AIM quoted investment company focused on investment in Indian […]

Juridica Investments has announced an investment in AC Kinetics, a privately-held US-based developer of an advanced induction motor control algorithms, which aim to reduce energy consumption while improving performance. In announcing the purchase JIL, which invests directly and indirectly in a wide variety of business-to-business related litigation and arbitration claims, advised that they believe the AC […]

British Land has agreed to let the 4,500 square foot sixth floor of its Marble Arch House property (located on Seymour Street in the Portman Village) to Access Industries on a ten-year lease. Access will join Fulcrum Asset Management, who signed a ten year lease for the building’s 9,000 square foot fifth floor earlier this summer. […]

NextEnergy Solar Fund,  has agreed to acquire a special purpose vehicle with the rights to construct a solar power plant, The Brickyard Power Plant for £3.9m. The 3.8MWp plant is located in the Midlands and was identified in NESF’s Prospectus as a ‘core shortlist’ asset, when it listed on the LSE, in April 2014. The purchase is […]

Cambria Africa, the LSE listed investment company  (market cap c£6m) that is building a portfolio of investments, primarily in Zimbabwe, has announced it has launched legal proceedings in the High Court against Lonrho Ltd (previously Cambria’s investment manager) for c US$10m (£6m). Cambria’s formal proceedings seek to 1) rescind a settlement that it agreed with Lonhro […]

Target Healthcare REIT, a specialist investor in UK care homes, has acquired three purpose-built care homes and four specialist care bungalows for £20.4m. The facilities are located in Norfolk and Northern Ireland and are leased to Priory Group (the UK’s largest provider of mental health and elderly care services) for a period of up to […]

HgCapital Trust is to invest £4.4m in Sequel Business Solutions, a leading software and service provider to the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. The trust will be participating through the HgCapital Mercury Fund, which is focused on growth buyouts in the software and technology sector, alongside other institutional clients of HgCapital. Sequel’s management team are to retain a significant interest in […]

Custodian REIT has announced the purchase of a second property in Castleford for £1.61m. The property is a 12,940 square foot trade counter, let to MKM Building Supplies Limited, on a 20 year lease. The rent is 110,000 per annum, which reflects a net initial yield of 6.45%. Custodian REIT listed on the LSE on 26 March 2014, acquiring […]

Derwent London has pre-let 28,000 square feet, of newly refurbished office space, at its 1-2 Stephen Street property in W1, London, to public relations firm Freud Communications. The lease is for 15 years with an initial rent of £1.8m pa, rising to £2.1m pa after five years, with an open market upward-only rent review, or tenant break, at year ten. Derwent purchased 1-2 […]

Foresight Solar Fund, which raised £150m in its IPO in October 2013 to develop a portfolio of solar assets in the UK, has announced it’s on track to deliver its target dividend of 6p per share for its first financial year. We expect there will be further announcement from Foresight Solar fund in August. If they get […]

BlueCrest BlueTrend’s US Dollar share class no longer meets the FCA’s ‘Shares in Public Hands Requirement’ following its tender offer (for both its Sterling and US dollar share classes). The remaining US Dollar shares, not purchased under the tender offer, are to be compulsory converted into Sterling shares.  The conversion will take effect on or around 17 July 2014 […]

Keystone, managed by Mark Barnett (pictured), has announced that the management fee on the fund will fall from 0.8% of market capitalisation to 0.6%. This change is effective from July 1 2014. At the same time Keystone is changing the structure of its performance fee in a way that will make it slightly easier to earn […]

Over the year to 31 March 2014 BACIT generated a return on net assets of 3.63% and a share price return of 9.62%. During this period the FTSE All-Share Index return was 8.81% and the return on the Hedge Fund Research Institute Fund of Funds Strategic Index was negative 2.53% (in sterling terms). They say […]

Empiric Student Property has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Revcap advisors to acquire a project that is building a 158 bed student accommodation project in Southampton. The building, Brunswick House on Brunswick Place, Southampton, is a former commercial property. The joint venture is paying £3.575m for the building which will be redeveloped and is […]

Independent Investment Trust, managed by Max Ward (pictured), delivered a total return on its net asset value of 5.2% over the six months ended 31 May 2014 compared to returns of 4.8% for the FTSE All-Share Index and 4.0% for the FTSE World Index. The discount widened from 6.5% to 8.6%. The dividend is unchanged at […]

Trading Emissions has sold its interest in EWG Slupsk Sp. z o.o. to Pakenham Sp. z o.o., a Polish special purpose vehicle owned and controlled by Winergy Last Mile Ltd. EWG Slupsk is developing 98 wind turbines across 8 wind farm clusters located in Northern Poland with an expected final capacity of 253.5MW. The project has a grid connection […]

Midas Income & Growth, managed by Alan Borrows (pictured) and Simon Callow has released its results for the year that ended on 30 April 2014. The total return on the net asset value for the year was 7.2% – well ahead of the company’s benchmark (LIBOR +3%) which, because LIBOR is so low, returned 3.6%. The Board […]

All Asia Asset Capital is upping its stake in power producer, Andaman Power and Utility Company, from 2.5% to 7% – issuing 11m new shares to the vendor (5.24% of the company) and paying $550,000 in cash. Andaman Power and Utility is focused on Thailand and Myanmar. It has done a deal with Aggreko to […]

Highcroft Investments has sold a property it owns in Beckenham for £1m. The 5,913 sq ft building is let to Superdrug on a rent of £72,000 on a deal that expires in June 2018. The sale price was 25% more than its valuation at 31 December 2013. Highcroft intends to use the sale proceeds to invest […]

SVM UK Emerging, co-managed by Margaret Lawson (pictured) and Colin McLean, has published its results for the year that ended 31 March 2014. Over the year the net asset value generated a total return of 37.2% – over 20% ahead of the company’s benchmark (the IMA UK All Companies Sector) which returned 17.1%. The return to shareholders […]

Empiric Student Property has bought a development of an 86 bedroom student accommodation block being constructed on the site of a former cinema in Buccleuch Street in Edinburgh (next to the University of Edinburgh). Empiric has bought the freehold of the site from Cruden Homes (East) who are building the project for a cost of […]

SEGRO has sold Pegasus Park in Brussels for €83.4m (no change on the valuation as at 31 December 2013). The property generated a yield, after admin costs, of 9.0%. Pegasus park is an 81,500 sqm office park close to Brussels airport. The high yield reflects the vacancy rate – about 20% – and relatively short […]

NextEnergy Solar Fund has bought a solar plant in Bilsham, Sussex that is being developed by BNRG Renewables. The plant is being built in two phases – one of 12.5MW and another of 2.5MW. NextEnergy Solar Fund will hand over £15m for the plant once it is awarded its preliminary acceptance certificate (expected August 2014). The […]

ARC Capital has been trying to sell its holding in Funtalk China Holdings. Shareholders have approved the deal but today ARC Capital Holdings has announced that one of the other conditions that needed to be satisfied before the deal could take place has not been fulfilled yet – namely that PAG Asia I LP (a vehicle […]

Artemis Alpha Trust has released results for the period ended 30 April 2014. It generated a net asset value total return of 13.3% for the period, ahead of the 10.5% return generated by the FTSE All-Share Index. The dividend increased from 3.05p to 3.2p. The fund’s discount widened however so the return to shareholders was […]

Real Estate Investors has sold Cathedral Place, 42-44 Waterloo Street, Birmingham to Can Like UK for £4.6m. This price equates to an initial yield of 4.1%. They say that other disposals are on the cards. Real Estate Investors has also updated the market on the position of the company as at 30 June 2014. All of […]

Small Companies Dividend Trust has published its anual accounts for the year ended 30 April 2014. It was a remarkable period for the fund as its net asset value per share rose by 37.9% and its share price by 46.3%. By contrast the MSCI UK Small Cap Index rose by 19.3%. The discount narrowed from […]