NextEnergy Solar Fund has bought a solar plant in Bilsham, Sussex that is being developed by BNRG Renewables. The plant is being built in two phases – one of 12.5MW and another of 2.5MW. NextEnergy Solar Fund will hand over £15m for the plant once it is awarded its preliminary acceptance certificate (expected August 2014). The […]

ARC Capital has been trying to sell its holding in Funtalk China Holdings. Shareholders have approved the deal but today ARC Capital Holdings has announced that one of the other conditions that needed to be satisfied before the deal could take place has not been fulfilled yet – namely that PAG Asia I LP (a vehicle […]

Artemis Alpha Trust has released results for the period ended 30 April 2014. It generated a net asset value total return of 13.3% for the period, ahead of the 10.5% return generated by the FTSE All-Share Index. The dividend increased from 3.05p to 3.2p. The fund’s discount widened however so the return to shareholders was […]

Real Estate Investors has sold Cathedral Place, 42-44 Waterloo Street, Birmingham to Can Like UK for £4.6m. This price equates to an initial yield of 4.1%. They say that other disposals are on the cards. Real Estate Investors has also updated the market on the position of the company as at 30 June 2014. All of […]

Small Companies Dividend Trust has published its anual accounts for the year ended 30 April 2014. It was a remarkable period for the fund as its net asset value per share rose by 37.9% and its share price by 46.3%. By contrast the MSCI UK Small Cap Index rose by 19.3%. The discount narrowed from […]

NextEnergy Solar Fund has bought a solar plant in Bilsham, Sussex that is being developed by BNRG Renewables. The plant is being built in two phases – one of 12.5MW and another of 2.5MW. NextEnergy Solar Fund will hand over £15m for the plant once it is awarded its preliminary acceptance certificate (expected August 2014). The […]

Burford Capital has released a trading update covering the six month period to the end of June. They say that, since the inception of the fund, 26 investments have generated $173.9 million in gross investment recoveries and $67 million net of invested capital, producing a 63% net return on invested capital. They go o to say […]

LondonMetric Property has a joint venture with Universities Superannuation Scheme called Metric Income Plus Limited Partnership. this joint venture is buying Trostre South Retail Park in Llanelli from Benesco, a charity, for £12.8m, equivalent to a net initial yield of 6.8%. The 75,400 sq ft Tostre South Retail Park is let to B&Q, Pets at Home and KFC […]

Investors in Global Real Estate has announced that it has selected Schroder Property Investment Management Limited as its new manager (starting today!). The portfolio will be run by a new Global Property Securities team established by Schroder consisting of Tom Walker (from AMP where he was Deputy Head of Global Listed Real Estate), Hugo Machin (from AMP where […]

Over the year to the end of March 2014, Oryx International Growth’s net asset value rose by 43.1% – outpacing the FTSE Small Cap Index by some margin (the index returned 17.5%). The main drivers of performance within the quoted portfolio were Essenden (the ten pin bowling company), up 200%; MJ Gleeson, up over 90%; Goals Soccer Centres, up over […]

Duet Real Estate Finance has announced that “loan 13” has been fully realised (because the underlying asset that it was secured against has been sold) and that the return on the investment was “in-line with its investment criteria”. Whilst that statement is not too informative, Duet Real Estate Finance has said that the net effect of […]

Empiric Student Property has made its first acquisition since listing on 30 June. It has announced that it spent £31m on three properties – College Green in Bristol (an 84 bed long leasehold property bought for £9.97m at a net initial yield of 6.4%); Picturehouse Apartments in Exeter (a 102 bed freehold property, pictured, acquired […]

International Public Partnerships has bought 72% of the second phase of Nottingham’s Building Schools for the Future portfolio. They already held 10% of this so this takes their stake to 82%. INPP is buying this form Carillion Private Finance for £2.75m. The project comprises the Farnborough School and Technology College and caters for over 1000 […]

Jupiter Second Split has announced its interim results. Over the six months to the end of April 2014, the value of its portfolio was barely changed – off by 0.1%. As the zero dividend preference share NAV grew, so the net asset value of the geared ordinary shares fell – by 8.3% during this six month […]

Target Healthcare REIT is acquiring a new, purpose-built, £6m care home in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The 72 bedroom home will be leased to Care Concern Group for 35 years on a lease that brings Target Healthcare REIT an initial 7% yield and increases in rent each year in line with RPI (subject to a cap and collar). […]

F&C Private Equity will replace its zero dividend preference share issue with a new debt facility. The ZDPs mature in December this year and the Board of F&C Private Equity has concluded that the most cost effective and flexible way of funding this and maintaining some modest level of gearing within the fund is to […]

Origo Partners has announced that Brooks MacDonald, through its lawyers in the Isle of Man (where Origo is incorporated), has raised a further complaint.  Brooks MacDonald asserts that the resolution passed on 8 March 2011 to amend the Company’s Articles to reflect the creation of the Convertible Preference Shares was not validly passed.   This assertion rests […]

Polar Capital Technology has published results for the year ended 30 April 2014 that show its net assets growing by 11.2% and its share price by 10.9% but both lagging the increase in the Dow jones World Technology Index of 13.1%. Very strong gains and outperformance of the index were given up in the last six […]

Aberdeen New Dawn has published figures for the year that ended 30 April 2014. Over the year the trust’s net asset value return was -8.9%, a bit worse than the benchmark  (MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex Japan index) total return of -6.8%. Unfortunately the discount widened and the return to shareholders was -14.0%. The […]

Custodian REIT has added further to its property portfolio with the acquisition of two modern industrial units on the 100 acre Estuary Commerce Park, Speke, Liverpool (next to Liverpool John Lennon International Airport) for £3.1m, equivalent to a net initial yield of 7.7%. Unit C is let to Powder Systems Limited on a 20 year […]

Secure Property Development & Investment has published its results for 2013. The fully diluted net asset value at the end of December 2013 was $1.62 – down from $2.67 at the end of 2012 – the main cause of this was a substantial dilutive equity issue. Occupancy at their Terminal Bovary property was 100%at the year […]

Tau Capital has published its results for the year to the end of December 2013. These are somewhat academic now but, for what it’s worth, its NAV declined from $0.53 to $0.30. Since the year end its investment in Stopharm has been written down further.

PME Africa has published its results for the year ended 31 December 2013 and has also announced that it intends to make a transformative deal that would result in it becoming a trading company. Over 2013 PMEA’s net asset value rose to $0.46 from $0.39. It bought back a quarter of its share capital at […]

Treveria has published its results for 2013. Excluding deferred tax, the net asset value of Treveria fell from €0.232 to €0.080 over the year to the end of December 2013. Part of this fall is accounted for by distributions made to shareholders of 3.25 cents and 1.25 cents in March and November 2013. The bulk […]

F&C Global Smaller Companies, as disclosed in its annual results, is considering an issue of loan stock to replace its existing long-term debt. The terms of the proposed issue have been disclosed today – £40m worth of 3.5% convertible unsecured loan stock, the coupon payable semi-annually in January and July (first payment on 31 January […]

BlackRock Income & Growth has published figures for the six months to the end of April 2014. The net asset value total return for the period was 4.1% vs. 2.6% for the FTSE All-Share Index. The return to shareholders was 2.6% (the discount widened from 0.9% to 2.4%). The dividend was increased by 10% to 2.2p. […]

Greencoat UK Wind is buying two wind farms, dipping into its credit line to do so (it will have borrowed £135m after the transactions complete – about 27% of gross assets) Kildrummy has a capacity of 18.4MW and was commissioned in May 2013. The farm, which is in Aberdeenshire, has a forecast net load factor […]

Trading Emissions is in dispute with Chinese counterparties to CER (Certified Emission Reduction) Transaction Agreements. Two claims came in in March – these total €6m and were disclosed in Trading Emission’s accounts. On 23 June they received claims totalling €18m relating to four agreements. The company thinks these claims are “unjustified and is rigorously defending them”.

After selling a shopping centre in Sunderland, Land Securities is spending the proceeds on a 30% stake in Bluewater. The purchase price is £656m, the seller is Lend Lease and Land securities are also paying £40m for the rights to manage the whole centre and the adjoining land (110 acres). The purchase price equates to […]

Gresham House has announced that a group of individuals have come forward with a set of proposals to put to Gresham’s shareholders as an alternative to liquidating the fund. The group consists of Tony Dalwood (ex manager of Strategic Equity Capital), Michael Phillips (ex chief executive of Iimia – which is now Miton, Anthony Townsend (ex […]