ICG Longbow has committed to its ninth transaction, a £10.00 million loan to Lanos (York) Limited, secured against the Best Western York Monkbar Hotel, which is located close to the city centre of York. The loan will allow this 99 bed hotel to be refurbished and extended by 27 beds. The loan has a maturity date of 31 December 2018 […]
The Board of Utilico Emerging Markets has agreed a number of changes to the management fee. The base fee is being amended to 0.65% of net assets from 0.5% of gross assets less current liabilities. Utilico Emerging Markets has gearing of about £20m at the moment on net assets of £412m so this translates into an […]
Riverstone Energy has announced two new investments (following on from its Liberty II investment which completed yesterday). Rock Oil Holdings, a Denver and Houston based oil & gas company, will get an investment of $250m, $83m of which will come from REL. Rock Oil’s focus will be on shale (Eagle Ford, Utica and the Permian […]
Witan, managed by Andrew bell (pictured) has posted a decent set of results. Over the year ended 31 December 2013 Witan’s net asset value total return beat its benchmark by 8.7% and they increased their dividend by 9.1% to 14.4p. The discount narrowed from 10.2% to 6.1%.
In 2013 Murray International, managed by Bruce Stout (pictured), had a poor year relative to its benchmark – returning 4.6% (in net asset value terms) and 4.1% (in share price terms) vs. 21.2% for the benchmark (60% FTSE All-Share and 40% FTSE World ex UK). It did manage to increase its dividend from 40.5p to 43.0p […]
The Board of Investors Capital, led by Iain McLaren (pictured) have agreed to cut the management fee from 0.9% of net assets to 0.75% (this takes effect on 1st April 2014). They also scrapping the performance fee.
Raven Russia’s net asset value rose by 1 cent over 2013 to 126 cents. It raised its dividend by a third though. Bank debt at the year end of $815m is offset by cash of $229m. They reckon they can add 50,000 to 100,000 sqm per annum to their existing portfolio of 1.4m sqm of […]
Bilfinger Berger Infrastructure has acquired a 50% interest in the Northern Territories Secure facility – a 1,000 bed correctional facility in Holtze near Darwin, Australia. The facility will be operational in Q2 2014 and the concession lasts for thirty years.
Hg Capital’s share price returned 1.4% over 2013. At the end of December 2013 Hg Capital’s net asset value was £11.80 – having delivered a total return for 2013 of -1.6%. Part of the problem was the drag from Hg’s high cash balances. They made five new investments but money has been flowing back from disposals […]
Crystal Amber, managed by Richard Bernstein (pictured), hold 10% of Leaf Clean Energy Company : LEAF and has decided to requisition an Extraordinary General Meeting to change LEAF’s Board and its investment strategy. Crystal Amber say LEAF has three problems: visibility of the underlying values of Leaf’s investments (LEAF uses a DCF method to value its investment even though most of them […]
Over the year ended 31 December 2013 Alliance Trust generated a total net asset value return of 18.4%. The total return to shareholders was 22.7% as the discount narrowed. Their equity portfolio outperformed the MSCI All Country World Index and Alliance Trust Savings made a profit for the first time in eight years as assets […]
RCM Technology’s figures, covering the year ended 30 November 2013, show the fund beating its benchmark by some margin. The total net asset value return for RTT was 47.2% over the year vs. 20.5% for the Dow Jones World Technology Index. On the back of this strong performance, the managers, led by Walter Price (pictured) have […]
Over the year ended 31 December 2013 RIT Capital Partners generated a total return on net assets of 18.6%. Its discount widened a little and so the return to shareholders was 14.0%. By contrast the return on the MSCI All Country World Index (after some fiddling around with currencies – they use 50% translated back […]
Over the course of 2013 JP Morgan Claverhouse generated a total net asset value return of 33.8% – well ahead of the return on the FTSE All-Share Index of 20.8%. The dividend was increased by 3.4% and, for the first time in five years, is now covered by revenue – an important leap forward for […]
Mithras posted a 12% increase in net assets over 2013 and its share price did even better, rising by 22%. £13m was returned to shareholders via two tender offers as the fund continued its strategy of winding down its portfolio. Amongst the cash flowing back to the company during the year were proceeds of exits […]
GCP Infrastructure is investing c£5m via an issue of notes from GCP Rooftop Solar 4 Ltd which will use the money to finance a portfolio of domestic rooftop solar panel installations in England. The notes are for a 20 year term and yield 9.3%.
Sebastian Luparia is stepping down as co-manager of JP Morgan Brazil to take up another role within JP Morgan. He will be replaced by Sophie Bosch de Hood (pictured) from JP Morgan’s Latin American team. Luis Carrillo is staying on as the other co-manager.
Starwood European Real Estate Finance is providing a €14.3m facility to enable the purchase of an office building in Amsterdam fully occupied by UPC Nederlands. They say the return on the facility will be ‘solid single digit’. With this deal, SWEF has now made eight investments adding up to a total value of £168m or 72% of net […]
Over the year ended 31 December 2013 LMS capital’s net asset value rose from 85p to 88p. £35m was handed back to shareholders via a tender offer, funded by £44m of cash exits from portfolio positions.
Richard Plackett, manager of BlackRock Throgmorton, will take a six month sabbatical starting 1 April 2014. Ralph Cox (manager of BlackRock UK Smaller Companies fund) is taking over responsibility for the CFD portfolio
Foreign & Colonial Investment trust has released its results for the year ended 31 December 2013. In total return terms, the net asset value returned 21.4% vs. 21.0% for the FTSE All-World Index. At the same time F&C has announced that Jeremy Tigue is stepping down as manager of the fund at the end of […]
The Board of Scottish Mortgage, led by John Scott (pictured), has negotiated a reduction in the management fee from 0.32% to 0.3% on total assets less current liabilities.
Aurora Russia has sold its interest in OJSC Flexbank for RUR189.1m (£3.2m) gross = RUR172.2m (£2.9m) after expenses. At the same time mortgages held by Flexbank with a nominal value of £2.4m have been transferred to another Aurora Russia subsidiary, Kreditmart Finance Limited and these will be sold in due course (possibly at a discount […]
Qannas Investments Limited has announced that it has sold a 29,000 sq ft plot in the Reem Island project, off the coast of Abu Dhabi, for AED22.7m. The plot was bough for AED12.0m in May 2013. One pound = 6.14 UAE Dirhams so the profit on the deal is £1.74m
F&C UK Real Estate has sold two properties – Swift House, Cosford Lane, Rugby – an industrial property let to Premier Foods – and Unit 1, King George Close, Romford – an industrial property let to Crystal Windows and Doors. The Rugby property fetched £5.25m against a £5.3m end December 2013 valuation and the Romford […]
Harbourvest Senior Loans Europe has appointed Spire Partners LLP as sub-advisers to the fund and intends that they will replace Harbourvest as managers of the fund in due course. Spire (Jonathan Russell (pictured), Philip Bennett-Britton and Oliver Drummond Smith) are introducing themselves to shareholders and will be asking them whether they believe the fund’s investment […]
Japan Residential Investment Company is buying seven residential apartment buildings for YEN9.4bn (£55.3m) at a small discount to a recent valuation. In all the properties contain 419 units and 15,077 sqm of leasable space and are expected to generate a yield of 5.2%
F&C UK Real Estate generated a total return to shareholders of 18.9% over the second half of 2013. The net asset value total return for the period was 11.0%, driven by a 6.6% increase in property values, and a rising premium made up the rest. Voids have risen a little but FRCE believes the letting market is good. […]
Alternative Asset Opportunities (which used to be known as US Traded Life Interests Fund) saw its net asset value fall from 48.5p to 45.9p over the six months ended 31 December 2013. The fall was largely the result of adverse exchange rate movements. The Board say that policy maturities during this period have been sufficient […]
Henderson Opportunities Trust has released its results for the year ended 31 October 2013. The fund did very well, generating a total net asset value return of 47.1% – more than twice the 22.8% return on the FTSE All-Share Index. The total return to shareholders was 71.0%. The report details the largest contributors to this […]
