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, […]

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 […]

GRIO : Ground Rents Income has a plan to get fully invested Ground Rents Income Fund has announced results for the year ended 30 September 2014. Its net asset value rose from 97.2p to 104.3p over the period, in response to demand for the underlying assets driving up their values. They say “the ground rents […]

MNKS : Monks too light in US Monks has published its interim results covering the six month period to the end of October 2014. Over this time the fund generated a return on net assets of 4.9% and a return to shareholders of 5.3% – lagging the return on the FTSE World Index of 8.0% […]

NRR : NewRiver raising £75m to buy out joint venture partner NewRiver Retail is raising £75m via a placing of new shares to fund the acquisition of the 90% stake it doesn’t already own in the “NewRiver Retail Property Unit Trust” – the cost of which will be £71m. The underlying property portfolio comprises five shopping centres and […]

Source: http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/news-and-analysis/analysis/the-alternative-plays-in-investment-trusts/2016533.article Income-seeking investors would do well to look at the alternative plays on offer in the investment companies space, such as renewable energy and asset leasing With interest rates held so low for so long, it is not surprising investors have been looking for alternative ways to generate income. That search is only set to […]

BRFI : Relatively poor year for BlackRock Frontiers BlackRock Frontier Markets generated a total return on net assets of 21.1% over the year to the end of September 2014 which is good in absolute terms, a lot better than the MSCI Emerging markets Index which returned 4.2% but well behind its benchmark, the MSCI Frontier […]

Empiric Student Property has announced it has made a further investment in Exeter. It is spending £4.5m to buy Dean Clarke Lofts, a 30 bed, loft-style student accommodation block. It is a conversion of a Grade 2 listed, Georgian building on Southernhay Gardens in Exeter. It was completed in August 2013 and comprises 30 beds […]

JGC : Whole Foods holds back Jupiter Green Jupiter Green’s net asset value total return was -2.0% over the six months to the end of September 2014, a little less than the MSCI World Small cap. Index which returned -1.6% and the FTSE ET100 Index which was flat. The shares moved from trading at a discount to […]

JLIF bidding for Balfour Beatty PPP assets John Laing infrastructure has announced that it is considering bidding for Balfour Beatty’s PPP portfolio (all the public private partnership / public finance initiative  type deals that Balfour Beatty has on its balance sheet). JLIF is thinking about offering c£1bn in cash for these and would raise fresh […]

MVI : Marwyn Value sells Breedon Aggregates Marwyn Value Investments has got cash equivalent to 3.7x their total investment in Breedon Aggregates – the stake was sold for £51.3m and MVI’s share of that is £43.5m. They first invested in the company as Marwyn Materials in 2008. The return works out as a IRR of […]

SRE : Transformative deal for Sirius Real Estate Sirius Real Estate has announced that it is raising €40m through a private placing, getting a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and acquiring a €76m mixed use German property portfolio. Sirius has placed 105,263,158 new ordinary shares at a price of 38 cents per ordinary share to […]

JETG / JETI : Mixed fortunes for the two JPMorgan European pools JPMorgan European Investment trust interim results announcement covering the six months that finished on 30 September 2014 has been published. For the growth portfolio (JETG) there was a negative return on net assets of 4.5% – an underperformance of its benchmark, the MSCI Europe ex […]

BBOX : Tritax raises £110m and spends £22m Tritax Big Box REIT has announced that it has raised £110m by placing 104.77m shares at 105p. It has also said that it has exchanged contracts on a Tesco retail distribution warehouse for which they are paying £22.45m, equivalent to a net initial yield of 8.25%. The […]

RECI : RECI expands loan portfolio Real Estate Credit Investments has announced its interim results for the six months that ended on 30 September 2014. The net asset value rose by 3.2% to 159p. They are paying a dividend of 2.7p for the quarter. They have been expanding the portfolio, making six new loans worth […]

TRIG : Renewables Infrastructure buys Irish wind farm The Renewables Infrastructure Group has bought a wind farm in Ireland for €17.3m. Taurbeg wind farm is capable of producing 25.3MW. It is located near Rockchapel, County Cork in the Republic of Ireland and was developed by the RES group. The project includes eleven Siemens wind turbines, each with […]

EUT : European Inv Trust takes defensive stance European Investment Trust beat its benchmark, the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index, by 1.1% in total return terms over the year that ended on 30 September 2014, producing a return on net assets of 6.4%. Furthermore the discount narrowed from 10.9% to 6.5% and so the […]

IVI : Invesco Income Growth just fails to match benchmark Invesco Income Growth lagged the FTSE All-Share Index a little over the six months ended 30 September 2014, producing a total return on net assets of 0.7% and return to shareholders of 0.5% against a 1.6% return for the Index. The quarterly dividends were increased […]

VNF : PXP Vietnam does well in its final year PXP Vietnam has published its accounts for the year ended 30 September 2014, Over the period the fund’s net asset value rose by 25.9% while, by comparison, the VNI (the Vietnam Index) rose by 21.0%. Shareholders did even better as the discount narrowed, leading to a 42.7% […]

FCI : F&C Capital & Income increases div for 21st year running F&C Capital & Income, managed by Julian Cane (pictured), has announced its full year results for the year ended 30 September 2014. Over that period it generated a net asset value total return of 3.8% and a 6% return to shareholders. By contrast the […]

GWI : Globalworth expands Bucharest office portfolio Globalworth has bought Green Court, which they describe as “a newly built A-class office property development, strategically located in Bucharest’s new central business district”. The building is close to Globalworth’s existing Bucharest One development. They bought the building from Skanska who are constructing a group of three offices […]

ESP : Empiric buys in Hatfield Empiric Student Property has exchanged contracts to acquire a 199 year lease on a direct-let, premium student accommodation property in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, for a consideration of £9.4m. The deal should complete  on or about 17 December 2014. The property, Curzon Point, is an operating, purpose-built student accommodation property on The Common in […]

SREI : Schroder Real Estate acquisition in Milton Keynes Schroder Real Estate has announced that it has bought Heathfield Industrial Estate in Milton Keynes for £5.1m. The purchase price is equivalent to an initial yield of 7.7%. The full reversionary yield (assuming all units were let out at market rents) is 8.8%. Heathfield sits next […]

ELTA : A good year for Electra Electra Private Equity, chaired by Roger Yates (pictured) has had an eventful but nonetheless successful year. An approach by Sherborne Investors, which was ultimately defeated at an EGM at the beginning of October, may have been a distraction but, despite this, Electra has provided a return of 15% on its diluted NAV […]

BHUE : BlackRock Hedge Selector to wind up BlackRock Hedge Selector has announced that proposals it had received from a third party to takeover the fund have now fallen away and therefore the Board are resolved to ask shareholders to put the fund into liquidation. The EGM needed to approve the liquidation is expected to […]

WTR : Mixed results for World Trust Fund World Trust Fund reports that over the six months ended 30 September 2014  its fully diluted net asset value in US dollar terms fell 0.2%, lagging the MSCI All Country World Index which rose 2.6%, though ahead of the MSCI All Country World ex-US Index which fell 0.5%. […]