Invesco Asia outperformed its benchmark by some margin over the six months that finished on 31 October 2014. The net asset value total return was 17.6% and the return to shareholders 16.6% – these compare favourably to a 10.3% return on the benchmark (MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex Japan Index (total return), expressed in […]
Edinburgh Worldwide has published results for the year ended 31 October 2014. Over this period the fund’s net asset value fell by 2.7% and its share price fell by 4.9%. By contrast the benchmark (MSCI All Countries World Index (in sterling terms) until 31 January 2014, thereafter, the S&P Citigroup Global Small Cap Index (in […]
Custodian REIT has announced that it is paying £1.2m for a parcel of development land in Portishead. The 1.48 acre site will be used for the development of three retail warehouse/leisure units with construction to be phased over an expected seven month build period. The units have been pre-let to JD Wetherspoon plc on a 25 […]
Over the six months to the end of October 2014, the gearing effect provided by its zero dividend preference shares worked against Smaller Companies Dividend Trust as small cap. values fell. The MSCI Small Cap. Index fell in value by 3.1% over the period while Smaller Companies Dividend Trust’s net asset value fell by 5.9%. […]
Spark Ventures interim results fro the six months to the end of September 2014 show a net asset value of 6.1p. It sold part of its stake in IMI Mobile but the balance is locked up until June 2015. The rest of the portfolio is supposed to be sold off by the end of March 2015 […]
Lowland, managed by James Henderson (pictured), has published its results for the year that ended on 30 September 2014. Over this period the fund generated a total return on net assets of 5.7% – a little bit below the return on the FTSE All-Share Index of 6.1%. The dividend was increased by 8.8% to 37p, paid […]
BlackRock North American Income results for the year that ended on 31 October 2014 show the fund’s net asset value underperforming its benchmark. Over the period the total return on net asset value was 11.8%, 5.1% less than the return generated by the Russell 1000 Index. Shareholders though were also impacted as the shares moved from […]
Over the year to the end of September 2014, Henderson European Focus Trust’s net asset value total return was 14.5% – well ahead of the return generated by its benchmark, the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index. Shareholders did even better, with a return of 19.3%. It even beat its peer group by a significant […]
Infrastructure India has published interim results for the six months ended on 30 September 2014. Over this period its net asset value fell from 62p to 43p – a fall of 31%. This was largely the consequence of a dilutive issue of shares at a price less than asset value in August. Unfortunately all these shares […]
Crystal Amber, managed by Richard Bernstein (pictured), has been consulting its shareholders about expanding the fund. Crystal Amber buys stakes in companies that it thinks can benefit from a bit of self-help or active engagement by Crystal Amber. It points to its three year track record (65% NAV growth and 85% share price growth) and says […]
MedicX has published results for the year ended 30 September 2014. Over that period its net asset value fell from 69.4p to 65.3p – about 6%. It paid dividends of 5.8p (up from 5.7p for the year before), so the total return on NAV was positive but these dividends were not covered by earnings and […]
Land Securities has announced the sale of ‘The Centre’ and the ‘Almondvale West Retail Park’ in Livingston to HSBC Alternative Investments for £224.1m. The sale reflects Land Securities strategy of refocusing its shopping centre portfolio on ‘dominant regional and Greater London assets’. ‘ The Centre’ is Scotland’s second-largest covered shopping and is home to over 160 retailers. ‘Almondvale West […]
Lyxor Focus, the LSE listed fund of hedge funds, has announced details of an EGM, scheduled for 30 December 2014, in which shareholders will consider a resolution to wind up the company. Assuming the resolution passes, it is intended that Lyxor’s listing on the LSE will also be cancelled with effect of the close of the market […]
Terra Catalyst Fund‘s sole remaining material holding is its 72.4% holding in Spazio Investments NV, an Italian registered Fund which invests in Italian property. This follows on from the sale of TCF’s holdings in the Tamar European Industrial Fund and Rugby estates earlier this year. Spazio is being held on TCF’s balance sheet at €6.43, unchanged […]
Summit Germany, the German commercial real estate company, has provided a trading update with a number of key developments. The first is that it has agreed terms to refinance €268m of its €309m debt facilities. This includes a new €240m, 7 year, 3.4% debt facility (the current loan is at 3.9%) which is expected to be in place by […]
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust, managed by Nick Train (pictured), has published its annual results for the year ended 30 September 3014, which confirm another year of outperformance relative to its FTSE All-Share Benchmark. FGT provided an NAV total return of 8.6%, comfortably ahead of the benchmark’s 6.1%. A second interim dividend of 6.2p has been […]
Promethean has announced that it will enter voluntary liquidation and its shares have been suspended from trading on AIM. Grant Thornton were appointed as liquidators. The proceeds will be returned to shareholders PTH : Another minnow disappearing
Over the year to the end of October 2014 Scottish Investment Trust generated a return of 1% on net assets – in-line with the return on the FTSE All-Share Index over that period but well behind the 8.8% return posted by the FTSE All World Index (a large proportion of SCIN’s assets are invested overseas). […]
Foresight Solar is to buy Landmead, the UK’s largest solar farm. Located in East Hanney, Oxfordshire and currently under construction, this 46MWp farm is expected to be grid-connected later this month and so should qualify for a subsidy at a rate of 1.4 ROCs. With this deal, Foresight will now own farms capable of generating 213MWp […]
Globalworth Real Estate has announced that it is buying Nusco Tower for €46m and a parcel of land for €4m. The Tower deal won’t complete until Q2 2015. GWI : Globalworth buys Nusco Tower, a 20 storey office block on Gara Herastrau, the same street as Globalworth’s recent acquisition, Green Court Building A. Nusco Tower has circa […]
Blackstar Group is planning to buy 100% of Times Media Group and 22.9% of Kagiso Tiso Holdings in exchange for cash and shares in Blackstar. Following the completion of the transaction, Blackstar will change its name to “Tiso Blackstar group SE” Blackstar already owns 32.5% of Times Media Group. To buy the remainder Blackstar will […]
Ludgate Environmental has announced that it is writing off its investment in Eco Plastics. they says that there have been recent operational challenges at Eco Plastics and unfavourable market conditions. Unfortunately, this situation has not improved in recent months, and although they have been working with creditors to find a solvent solution, this is no longer […]
Tritax Big Box REIT has announced the acquisition of two more distribution centres – one at Dove Valley Park, Derby and the other at Trafford Park in Manchester for a combined price of £55.1m, equivalent to a blended net initial yield of 6.53%, assuming 5.8% purchase costs. Completion of both purchases is expected to take place by 12 […]
Standard Life European Private Equity Trust has published its results for the year that ended 30 September 2014. the total return on its net asset value for the year was 7.7%. They are paying a dividend of 5p per share and the Board have said they intend to try to at least maintain that level […]
Global Resources Investment Trust has published its first set of accounts. these cover the period from launch to the end of August 2014. Over that period the net asset value fell by 28.5% and the share price fell by 66% to 34p. Since then the falls have worsened so that, at the date of producing […]
Starwood European Real Estate Finance, alongside other Starwood funds, made a £220m loan to Almacantar, a property investment and development company specialising in London. They now plan to increase the size of this loan to £265m with this fund providing £5m of this. Almacantar plan to use this to fund the refurbishment of Centre Point, […]
Majedie Investments final results for the year ended 30 September 2014 show the fund’s net asset value returning 10.8%. The dividend was cut from 10.5p to 7.5p. However the fund’s discount narrowed from 28.4% to 5.3% over the year and so the return to shareholders was much higher at 49.7% as the share price rose […]
Over the six months that ended on 31 October 2014, Polar Capital Technology beat the Dow Jones World Technology Index by 2.4% in a strong period for the sector – the Index was up 16.3% in sterling terms and the NAV up 18.7%. The share price rose by 19.2%. The manager says the most significant positive […]
Balfour Beatty has responded to the approach that John Laing Infrastructure Fund made for Balfour Beatty’s infrastructure assets. Balfour says the mooted £1bn price tag undervalues these assets – the Board “concluded that the proposal falls significantly short of its own view of the value of the portfolio” and therefore it has rejected the proposal. The […]
Altus Resource Gold held its AGM yesterday. the resolution that it continue as an investment company was rejected by shareholders 14.9m voting against to 13.4m voting for. The directors now have four months to come up with a plan for the future of the company which may result in it being liquidated. ARCL : Altus […]
