3i Infrastructure has announced an agreement to sell its stake in Eversholt Rail Group, to CK Investments S.A R.L., generating net proceeds of £358m. At 48.7%, this is a significant uplift on the 30 September 2014 valuation of £240.8m. The transaction is expected to close in March 2015. Eversholt is one of three leading rail stock companies in […]
Origo Partners has announced that all the resolutions put forward at the Extraordinary General Meeting on Friday were defeated. Brooks MacDonald requisitioned the meeting in November with the aim of removing Origo’s existing directors (except Chris Rynning) and appointing Brett Miller and Rhys Davies with a mandate to sell off Origo’s assets. The announcement says that between […]
Bankers Investment Trust has published its results for the year that ended on 31 October 2014. The net asset value rose by 1.5% while the FTSE All-Share Index fell by 2.3%. The full year dividend was increased by 4.7% to 14.8p and the Board is forecasting a dividend of at least 15.5p for the current […]
TwentyFour Select Monthly Income has published results covering the period from its incorporation on 12 February 2014 to 30 September 2014 (it listed on 10 March 2014). On the income side of things, dividends in the period totalled 3.07p and they continue to target payments of 0.5p per month. The net asset value at the […]
Fair Oaks Income has announced its first dividend since it launched in June 2014. Shareholders on the register on 30 January will get a 4.25 cent per share dividend. the Board of Fir Oaks has decided that the fund will now shift to paying monthly dividends, with the first of these payable in February. Fair […]
British Assets’ results for the year ended 30 September 2014 show the fund generating a return on net assets of 6.6%. This compares to a return of 7.3% on its benchmark (80 per cent FTSE All-Share Index and 20 per cent FTSE World (ex UK) Index). The return to shareholders over the period was 6.3%. […]
Summit Germany has announced that it has raised €120m from investors by way of a placing of 171.4m new shares at 70- cents per share. They plan to use the money to expand the portfolio and have identified an office portfolio worth the full €120m which they are now negotiating on, part of this will […]
BlueCrest BlueTrend announced today that as the average of the Company’s monthly net asset value as at the end of October, November and December 2014 was less than US$100m, it will hold a continuation vote (this is a requirement under the company’s articles). They say Notice convening the general meeting will be published by no later than […]
Origo Partners has announced that eleven employees, including Chris Rynning and Niklas Ponnert, have resigned from the company and eight of these are now employed by Origo Advisers Limited, three employees had their employment contracts terminated at a cost to Origo Partners of $21,000. Origo Advisers Limited has now taken up the reins of managing […]
Independent Investment Trust’s results for the year that ended on 30 November 2014 show it beating the FTSE All-Share Index but lagging the FTSE World Index, returning 10.4% on NAV vs. 4.7% for the UK market and 13.7% for the global index. The discount didn’t change much and so the return to shareholders was 10.6%. […]
North American Income Trust has announced that its current manager, Paul Atkinson, has decided to return to Europe with his family, leaving Aberdeen’s Philadelphia office. Paul has managed the trust since its change of remit in 2012. He will be succeeded by Ralph Basset (the deputy head of North American equities) and Fran Radano (a […]
International Biotech is part owner of an unquoted UK biotech stock, Convergence Pharmaceuticals, that is being acquired by Biogen Idec. At the purchase price of $675m, International Biotech’s stake is worth £6.8m. This compares to the £442,000 valuation of the company in International Biotech’s accounts. For now though International Biotech is writing up the value […]
Ground Rents Income Fund has entered into an option agreement to buy the ground rents of 583 residential units in six buildings for up to £3.9m. They expect these to come into the portfolio over the course of 2015. GRIO is buying the ground rents from Muse Developments, part of Morgan Sindall. The six sites, […]
Riverstone Energy is committing $125m towards the creation of a new $375m fund, Riverstone Credit Opportunities, L.P., which has been set up to take advantage of the lack of credit available for energy companies. The fund will be advised by Riverstone’s credit investment team, led by Christopher Abbate and Jamie Brodsky, both of whom joined […]
BlackRock Income & Growth has published its results for the year that ended on 31 October 2014 and over that period the fund outperformed the FTSE All-Share Index, generating a return on net assets of 6.3% against a 1% return for the FTSE All-Share Index. the discount widened slightly and so the return to shareholders […]
Further to the Company’s announcement of 19 December 2014, following the downgrading of the Company’s rating by the rating agencies ‘Midroog’ (a subsidiary of Moody’s Investor Services) and ‘Maalot S & P’ (a subsidiary of Standard & Poor’s Rating Services), Mirland has announced a change in its interest rates on its bonds. From 18 December 2014, […]
British Land has announced the sales of a retail and office portfolio in an off-market deal to Legal & General Property for £219.6m, ahead of September book value. The portfolio comprises: – Kingswood Retail Park, Hull (sold for £58.0m, at a 5.7% net initial yield) – House of Fraser, Birmingham (sold for £71.4m, at a […]
The board of Scottish Mortgage has announced that Tom Slater has been appointed joint manager of the fund, working alongside James Anderson. Tom has been Deputy Manager of Scottish Mortgage since 2009. Tom graduated BSc in Computer Science with Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh in 2000. He joined Baillie Gifford the same year and worked in […]
CatCo Reinsurance has announced that, after a year where there were no significant calls on the reinsurance they had written, they are planning to make a 10% return of capital to shareholders. This comes on top of a 5.929 cent dividend. The capital return will be done by way a of a B share scheme and […]
NextEnergy Solar has announced the acquisition of a solar power plant on Boxted Airfield, a site owned by Colchester Council, in the village of Langham about 3 miles from Colchester in Essex. The plant is being built on the former RAF Boxfield site and is due to be completed by March 2015. They expect it will attract […]
As we noted on 29 December, ARC Capital has been requisitioned by a party connected to its fund manager. PAG Holdings owns just over 50% of ARC’s shares but hasn’t announced a bid for the company despite ARC adopting the Takeover Code (which would normally force anyone owning more than 30% to bid for the […]
For the six month period to 31 October 2014, Schroder UK Growth’s NAV saw a total return of -6.3%, while the share price returned -8.8% and the discount widened from 5.2% at the beginning of the period to 7.8% at 31 October 2014. These performance figures compare poorly with an equivalent return of -1.6% by the […]
In its results announcement released on Christmas Eve, JPMorgan Asian reported underperformance of the fund’s benchmark and a widening of its discount. The Board have held talks with JPMorgan and are anxious that performance improves over 2015. They will hold a continuation vote in 2016 and the statement reads as though the Board would recommend […]
ARC Capital has announced that 0n 24 December 2014 it received a requisition from Cielo Overseas Limited, an associate of PAG Holdings Limited requiring the Company to call a general meeting of ARC’s shareholders. At the meeting shareholders will be asked to vote on the appointment of three new directors and the removal of Helen Wong, Steve Feniger, and […]
The appointment of administrators at City Link, an investment in the Better Capital 2012 cell, was reported by the media over Christmas. The announcement released today by Better Capital says that they hope that they will recover just shy of £20m from the administration. This is equivalent to the value that they placed on the […]
Tejoori has published its results for the year ended 30 June 2014 – some time ago now. The net assets attributable to shareholders rose from $25.97m to $26.89m. The money they have in Wakala deposits attracts a profit rate of 5% per annum. The larger part of the increase in the value of the company […]
GCP Infrastructure has completed a £12.3m investment in a loan note issued by GCP Social Housing 1 Limited. £1.4m of this money has already been committed and the rest will be deployed over the next five months. The loan note has a life of 35 years and will be used to provide a loan facility secured on […]