News

11 Aug 2015

RIT Capital issues long-term debt

RIT Capital Partners delivered a 6.4% return on net assets for the first half of 2015 and an 11.8% return to shareholders, both of which compare well to the 2% return on RPI+3% per annum and 3% return on the MSCI AC World Index. The dividends for the first half totalled 30p, 2% higher than […]

11 Aug 2015

Prospect Japan struggles in H1 2015

Prospect Japan has published interim figures covering the first half of 2015. We are having trouble understanding the statement – the text says “The Prospect Japan Fund (the “Company”) underperformed the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index (Total Return) by 26.7% in the six months to 30 June, 2015 (falling by 12.3% against a total return […]

11 Aug 2015

Witan outperformance continues

Witan’s results for the first half of 2015 show it beating its benchmark by 1.9% – delivering a total return on net assets of 5.5% compared with a return of 3.6% for the composite benchmark (the FTSE All-Share Index 40%, the FTSE All-World North America Index 20%, the FTSE All-World Europe (ex UK) Index 20% and the […]

11 Aug 2015

Adams sells last of legacy assets

Adams, which used to be (until March 2013) and eastern European property company, Carpathian, and is now focused on the technology and life sciences sectors, sold or shut down the last of its  legacy assets over the year ended 31 March 2015. It is one of the smallest listed investment companies. The Company delivered a gain of €172,000 on […]

11 Aug 2015

Woodford Patient Capital unveils its portfolio

Woodford Patient Capital has published its first set of figures – interims covering the period from its launch until the end of June 2015. The net asset value at the end of the period was 101.86p and the share price 113.5p – putting it on a premium of 11.4%. The Board is planning to issue […]

11 Aug 2015

Real Estate Investors sells 36 Great Charles Street

Real Estate Investors, the Birmingham based property group, announces the sale of the part-vacant office building, 36 Great Charles Street, Birmingham, to Circle Property Unit Trust for the sum of £2.5m.  The property was acquired on 25th March this year for the sum of £1.85m. RLE : Real Estate Investors sells 36 Great Charles Street

11 Aug 2015

Premier Energy & Water says utilities pull back has created opportunities

Premier Energy & Water has published its interim accounts, covering the six months to the end of June 2015. The period was a difficult one for the global utilities market, as evidenced by a -7.5% return on the FTSE All-World Utilities Index but Premier Energy & Water did much better than this with a return […]

11 Aug 2015

Stratex confirms mineralisation over 1.2 km strike at Madina Bafé prospect, Senegal

Stratex International has completed a trenching programme at the Madina Bafé prospect at its 85%-owned Dalafin gold project, in Senegal. Channel-sampling results include 4.0 m at a grade of 1.40 g/t gold and 6.0 m at 0.86 g/t gold in highly weathered material (ie potentially leached and thus lower grade than unweathered material). The company […]

10 Aug 2015

Peer-to-peer lending leads bumper investment trust fundraising

http://www.fundweb.co.uk/news-and-analysis/peer-to-peer-lending-leads-bumper-investment-trust-fundraising/2023047.article The peer-to-peer focused P2P Global led investment trust fundraising for July, which was another bumper month for assets raised, reaching £1.6bn. Research from QuotedData found that July was another big month for money raised, higher than the £1bn raised in June and the £870m in May.

10 Aug 2015

Glencore closes South African coal mine

Glencore has put a number of its opencast operations, and large portions of the coal processing plants, at its Optimum colliery, in South Africa, on care and maintenance and is retrenching 600-700 workers. This comes as the company commences “business rescue” proceedings for Optimum. Optimum supplies coal to the Hendrina power station owned by State […]

10 Aug 2015

Industrial Multi Property shares soar on talk of refinancing

Industrial Multi Property Trust has published an update on its position as at 31 March 2015 and been speculating about its future. They last refinanced the company at the end of December 2013. At that time occupancy within the portfolio stood at 84.6%. They have made modest improvements to this level since then and occupancy was […]

07 Aug 2015

JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income gets new co-manager

The Board of JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust has announced the addition of Amit Mehta to the Company’s investment management team with immediate effect. The Company is currently managed by Omar Negyal and Richard Titherington, who are part of J.P.Morgan Asset Management’s Emerging Markets & Asia Pacific Equities team, which has members in offices across […]

07 Aug 2015

Claverhouse beats UK market in H1

JPMorgan Claverhouse beat the FTSE All-Share Index over the first half of 2015, posting a 4.2% return on net assets as compared to a 3.0% return on the benchmark. The discount to net asset value at which the Company’s shares trade widened out from 3.4% at the end of the last financial year to 6.6% […]

07 Aug 2015

JPMorgan American edges ahead of S&P500

JPMorgan American just edged ahead of its benchmark in H1 2015 in what turned out to be a flat period for the US market – JPMorgan American’s net asset value return was 0.5% as compared to a 0.2% return on the S&P500 Index. The manager says that the portfolio benefitted from strong stock selection in the health […]

07 Aug 2015

AEW UK REIT buys retail park

AEW UK REIT is spending £7.15m to buy Valley Retail Park. Valley Retail Park, Newtownabbey is located on the northern side of Belfast with good accessibility to the M2, M5 and A2. The site extends to circa 7 acres and the scheme provides 100,413 sq ft arranged over 7 modern purpose built retail warehouse units […]

07 Aug 2015

Phaunos jv partner pays of debt in NZ subsidiary

Phaunos Timber Fund Limited has announced that agreement in principle has been reached with Rayonier, Phaunos’ joint venture partner in the Matariki Forestry Group, for Rayonier to provide a capital infusion for the repayment of all outstanding amounts under its existing NZ$235m credit facility and for general purposes.  The investment by Rayonier into the Matariki JV […]

07 Aug 2015

Sherborne Investors reiterates pledge not to bid for Electra

Sherborne’s net asset value fell by 1.5% over the six months ended 30 June 2015 to a level of 104.47p. The shares were trading at a discount of 3.3% to this NAV at the end of the period but the share price had climbed by 6.3% over the first half. By contrast Electra‘s shares rose by 4.9% […]

06 Aug 2015

Randgold’s H1 earnings cut despite higher gold production

Randgold Resources’ H1 2015 earnings were US$1.10/share, down 20% from the corresponding period of 2014 as the company received a gold price US$91/oz lower than 2014, and despite increasing gold production (and sales). Gold production rose to 580 koz for the half year, with Q2 2015 production reaching a record 300 koz. Total cash costs […]

06 Aug 2015

Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate announces 25% increase in quarterly dividend

Kennedy Wilson Real Estate Europe, in releasing its interim results for half year ended 30 June 2015, have announced that the quarterly dividend is increasing by 25%, over the previous quarter, to 10p per share. The company say that this will be 40p per share annualised, which the board advise is a sustainable dividend level […]

05 Aug 2015

Low iron ore price hits Ferrexpo’s H1 earnings

Ferrexpo, the iron ore pellet producer with mines in the Ukraine, has reported a 45% fall in EBITDA for H1 2015, from the corresponding period of 2014, to US$176 million, with EPS down 44% to USc19.6. Despite an 8% increase in pellet production, to a record 5.8 Mt, and a 30% reduction in cash costs, […]

05 Aug 2015

Miton Worldwide Growth – Sink or swim? Realisation opportunity in 2018

Miton Worldwide Growth, managed by Nick greenwood (pictured), has announced its annual results for the year ended 30 April 2015. During the year, the trust’s NAV per share grew by 8.5% to 181.63p whilst its share price grew by 8.9% beating the FTSE All-Share Index, which rose 7.5% during the same period. The discount narrowed marginally […]

05 Aug 2015

20% of global gold production loss-making

UK-based precious metal consultancy group, Metals Focus, has estimated that at the current gold price of below US$1,100/oz, some 24%, or around 400 t, of annual gold production is being mined at a loss, using the all-in sustaining cost (AISC) measure. The consultancy bases its conclusion on its annual global cost curve, which represents some 1,650 […]

05 Aug 2015

Foresight Solar on track to pay a 6.1p dividend for the current year

Foresight Solar Fund has announced its interim results for the half year ended 30 June 2015. The fund’s NAV increased from £209.8m to £277.9m (24.5%) although NAV per share fell 2.3% from 100.9p to 98.6p. Reported profit for the period was £5.38m and earnings per share was 2.32p. A second quarterly dividend of 1.52p is […]

05 Aug 2015

Electra agrees the sale of Nuaire for £145m

Electra Private Equity has announced that it has agreed to sell its interest in ventilation systems manufacturer Nuaire to Polypipe Group in a deal valued at approximately £145m. On completion of the transaction, which is expected during August, Electra is to receive proceeds of approximately £72m. This represents an uplift of £24 million, or 50% on the […]

04 Aug 2015

Henderson Smaller shareholders get bumper year and a fee cut

Over the year to the end of May 2015, Henderson Smaller Companies generated a 20.4% return on net assets and a 28.2% return to shareholders both of which compare well to a 10.4% return on the Numis Smaller Companies Index for the same period and the average returns for HSL’s peer group (14.3% on NAV […]

04 Aug 2015

Xtract intersects new reef in Chilean mine

Xtract Resources has intersected a second high grade gold reef system (’Reef system B’) at the Colin mining area at its developing Chepica gold and copper mine, in Chile. The new system grades 3.9 g/t over a 4.1 m width in situ and to-date the company has developed 10 m along strike. Xtract believes that […]

04 Aug 2015

Pacific Alliance Asia Opportunities proposes liquidation

The Board of Pacific Alliance Asia Opportunities has been worried about the fund becoming too small and believes a large number of shareholders want to swap their investment for one in the underlying feeder fund through which the fund invests. It is proposing therefore that the closed-end fund be wound up. they have called an […]

03 Aug 2015

MedicX extends debt maturity

MedicX Fund Limited has announced that it has negotiated extended terms for the £50m private placement of loan notes issued in two tranches during August and December 2014. The renegotiation was facilitated by the original loan note arranger Independent Debt Capital Markets. The loan notes previously had a duration of five years maturing in August […]