News

31 Mar 2015

Schroder Real Estate to become a REIT

In what seems to be a continuation of a trend, Schroder Real Estate has announced today that it is applying to become a REIT. The reason behind this is a change to their current taxation arrangements – they had a deal with HMRC whereby the tax they paid as an offshore company was fairly low. […]

31 Mar 2015

JPMorgan Senior Secured loan hit by energy exposure and hedging problems

JPMorgan Senior Secured Loan Fund has published results covering the period from its launch in December 2013 to the end of January 2015. They say they got the money they raised in the initial offer invested by the end of January 2014 and, from then until the end of the period, the fund produced a […]

31 Mar 2015

Alliance vs. Elliott – closing arguments

First – Karin Forseke (Alliance Trust’s Chairman)’s message to shareholders in the circular convening the meeting: “Dear Shareholder,  Who are Elliott and what do they really want?  Our Company has been requisitioned by Elliott Advisors (UK) Ltd. to appoint three additional directors to the Board of Alliance Trust. Your Board believes this is just the […]

30 Mar 2015

Schroder Japan Growth doing well

Schroder Japan Growth’s interims for the six months ended 31 January 2015 show the company’s NAV produced a total return of 12.1%, outperforming the Benchmark Index, which produced a total return of 8.9%. The share price produced a total return of 11.3% during the period. Andrew Rose’s manager’s report says the sharp fall in the oil […]

30 Mar 2015

VinaCapital Vietnam Opps swaps dairy interests, outperforms

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunities Fund added around 1% to its NAV over the second half of 2014. This was well ahead of the Vietnam Index which fell by 6%. The best performing part of the portfolio was their private equity positions. They sold An Giang Plant Protection for $63.1m. This investment was originally purchased five years ago […]

30 Mar 2015

Bet on good management says Dunedin Income Growth

Dunedin Income & Growth outperformed the FTSE All-Share Index by 4% over the year that ended on 31 January 2015, over the period the fund’s net asset value total return was 11.1% vs. 7.1% for the Index. The return to shareholders was just 6.8% however as the shares moved from trading on a 1.6% premium […]

30 Mar 2015

Summit Germany refinances manager loan

Summit Germany has refinanced 9 of the 11 properties in its portfolio that were acquired in April 2014 with a €33m loan from a German bank. With this deal done, they are able to repay the debt lent to them by Summit Israel (the parent company). The new loan comes at an interest rate of 1.96% […]

30 Mar 2015

Aberdeen Asian Smaller hit by widening discount

Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies has announced interim figures covering the six months ended on 31 January 2015. The total return on net assets was 5.9% in the six months to 31 January 2015. By comparison, the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Index and MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Small Cap Index total returns […]

30 Mar 2015

Vietnam Infrastructure restructuring delayed

Vietnam Infrastructure’s interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2014 have just been published. Over that period the fund’s net asset value fell from 61 cents a share to 60 cents. Towards the end of the period, shareholders approved plans to restructure the fund but the regulatory approval of this has been delayed […]

30 Mar 2015

Empiric buys in Leeds

Empiric Student Property has announced the acquisition of St Mark’s Court in Leeds. This property, which was completed in 2009, is a high-quality, modern purpose-built student accommodation scheme comprising 85 large self-contained studios with communal facilities and secure parking spaces.  Empiric’s Board believes that there is scope to extract further value through asset management, including a […]

30 Mar 2015

Camper & Nicholsons to redevelop Victoria Quay

Camper & Nicholsons Marinas Limited, has signed an agreement with its landside partner, Westcourt Real Estate (Europe) Ltd and the Homes and Communities Agency to permit the development of Victoria Quay, a landside and seaside development which includes a new 400 berth marina, at East Cowes, Isle of Wight. The agreement is subject to the satisfaction […]

30 Mar 2015

Starwood reports on busy 2014

Starwood European Real Estate Finance has announced results for the year ended 31 December 2014 that show a small increase in its net asset value from 99.13p to 100.08p but a much larger increase in its share price from 100.75p to 106.25p. Dividends per share were 5.8p, to give a total return on net assets […]

30 Mar 2015

GLI raises stake in Trade River Finance

GLI Finance has increased its stake in Trade River Finance from 9% to 43.9% and taken its interest in Trade River’s preference shares up to 100% by offering to swap shares in Trade River for shares and zeros issued by GLI Finance. A number of shareholders took up the offer and 6.2m new GLI shares have […]

30 Mar 2015

Town Centre Securities invests in Leeds

Town Centre Securities has announced the acquisition of Units 2, 3 and 6 Waterside Business Park, a multi-let industrial estate in Stourton, Leeds from clients of CBRE Investors. The three units were purchased for a total of £4.48m, reflecting a net initial yield of 7.25%.  Tenants include SW Group Logistics limited, European Stock Solutions Limited […]

30 Mar 2015

BlackRock Emerging Europe gets its Russian call right

BlackRock Emerging Europe’s results for the year ended 31 January 2015 show the impact of sanctions and the oil price fall on the Russian economy. The fund’s net asset value fell by 12.7% in total return terms. this better though that the equivalent 17.8% fall in the MSCI Emerging Europe 10-40 Index. A widening of […]

30 Mar 2015

Pacific Assets reports on profitable 2014

Final results for Pacific Assets were released on Friday. Over the year to the end of January 2015 the fund generated a return on net assets of 32.6% and a return to shareholders of 37% both well ahead of the 24.1% return on the MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan Index. The dividend was maintained […]

30 Mar 2015

Mercantile to smooth dividend payments

Mercantile results for the year ended 31 January 2015 have been published. These show that the fund marginally underperformed the Company’s benchmark with a return of 4.4% against 4.6% for the benchmark. Share price total return was -0.7%. The dividend was increased by a penny to 41p on revenues that fell from 47.5p to 42.1p. the […]

30 Mar 2015

Martin Currie Global dips into reserves to grow dividend

Martin Currie Global Portfolio results for the year ended 31 January 2015 have been released. They show the fund underperforming its benchmark, the FTSE World Index, a bit in net asset value terms – returning 16.1% vs. 17.3% – but marginally outperforming in share price terms – +17.4%.The dividend was increased from 4p to 4.1p but this was […]

27 Mar 2015

F&C Private Equity results benefit from exit bonanza

F&C Private Equity has published results for the year ended 31 December 2014. The total return to shareholders over this period was 10.3%. This was made up of a net asset value total return of 7.3% and a narrowing of the fund’s discount. They are paying dividends totalling 10.84p for the year which puts the […]

27 Mar 2015

Gerald Smith replaced as manager of Monks

The Board of Monks has announced changes to the management of that fund. Gerald Smith is being replaced by Charles Plowden and he will be assisted by Spencer Adair and Malcolm MacColl as new deputy managers. The announcement says the change takes place with immediate effect. The Trust will now be managed from Baillie Gifford’s […]

27 Mar 2015

Cost-conscious Alliance Trust chief braces for onslaught

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a188bda4-ccbb-11e4-b5a5-00144feab7de.html#axzz3Vbb2O0ko Cost-conscious Alliance Trust chief braces for onslaught David Oakley, Judith Evans and Miles Johnson  

27 Mar 2015

Change of manager and benchmark for Fidelity Asian Values

Over the six months that ended on 31 January 2015, Fidelity Asian Values outperformed its benchmark, generating a return on net assets of 9.2% as compared to 8.2% for the MSCI AC Far East ex Japan Index. Shareholders did even better than this though as the discount narrowed from 12.5% to 11.3%, giving them a total return of […]

27 Mar 2015

NextEnergy Solar adds Cambridgeshire plant to portfolio

NextEnergy Solar is paying up to £17.8m to acquire a 16.5 MWp solar plant at Croydon in Cambridgeshire. The plant was connected to the grid on 2 March 2015 and so will qualify for the 1.4 ROC subsidy regime. The plant was constructed under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract negotiated by NESF’s investment advisor, […]

27 Mar 2015

BBGI now holds stakes in 36 projects

BBGI has announced results for calendar year 2014, reporting a 3.5% increase in net asset value to 109.2p. The dividend for the year was 5.76p, a 4.7% increase on the 2013 figure. The combination of this and the fund’s premium meant that the total return to shareholders was 10.8% for the year. The average discount […]

27 Mar 2015

Polo Resources awaits news on Celamin investment

Polo Resources has just published its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2014. You might remember that it didn’t publish its NAV per share as at the end of June in its final accounts and there’s no mention of it here, although helpfully they tell us that the NAV has risen from […]

26 Mar 2015

DW Catalysts has difficult second half, high yield exposure weighs

DW Catalyst Fund Limited (the former BH Credit Catalysts) has reported results for the year that ended on 31 December 2014. Over the year the net asset value of the US dollar shares rose by 5.4% and the Sterling shares rose by 5.5%. DW Partners took on responsibility for the fund on 1 January 2015 […]

26 Mar 2015

International Public Partnerships maps out dividend growth

International Public Partnerships has mapped out its planed dividend increases for the next couple of years as it reports its final results for the year ended 31 December 2014. The full year dividend for 2014 was 6.3p, up from 6.15p in 2013. The Board says the minimum target for 2015 is 6.45p and for 2016 […]

26 Mar 2015

GLI Finance reports on transformational year

GLI Finance (where the author is a non-executive director) has announced its results for 2014. Over the year GLI’s net asset value rose from 50p to 51p. Revenues were depressed by the sale of the fund’s CLO portfolio to Fair Oaks Income Fund in the middle of last year (Fair Oaks didn’t pay its first […]