Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has said it will put forward two continuation votes requisitioned by Saba Capital last week for its AGM on 16 September. In a short update, the battery fund said, although it was not “obliged” to proceed with the resolutions as drafted by the activist hedge fund holding 17% of its […]
SEGRO (SGRO) has accepted the improved £14bn bid from Prologis offering the warehouse developer’s shareholders 258p cash per share and 0.0690 new Prologis shares per share. That maintains the same 1,054.3p per share Prologis offered on 22 July. Our view Richard Williams, senior analyst at QuotedData, said: “As expected, Prologis has firmed up its offer […]
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) has invested £49.5m for a majority stake in Conquip Engineering Group, a Hampshire-based construction company and infrastructure services provider. The £2bn flexible investment company has bought 61% of the family-owned business which brothers Daniel and George Critchley will continue to lead and reinvest alongside Caledonia. Founded in 2003, Conquip employs 250 people […]
Allianz Technology (ATT) delivered a “very strong” 44.6% underlying return in the first half of the year with the £2.2bn investment trust smashing its Dow Jones World Technology index benchmark’s 25.8%. Interim results showed shareholders’ total return was 42.7% from positions linked to the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom as the share price discount widened […]
F&C (FCIT) managed to keep up with the FTSE All-World index in the first half of the year despite being underweight to soaring semiconductor and memory-related stocks. The £6.2bn FTSE 100-listed investment trust, the UK’s oldest, made a 12.4% total investment return in the six months to 30 June, just behind the benchmark’s 12.6%, although […]
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure’s (ORIT) net asset value (NAV) fell 5.8% in the second quarter after the £329m investment trust cut its long-term forecasts for onshore wind generation by 10%. Fund managers David Bird and Chris Gaydon said a review of the maturing onshore wind farms that account for 57% of ORIT’s seven-year-old portfolio had replaced […]
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) fund manager Sven Borho has stepped down with immediate effect. The OrbiMed partner, who helps lead the New York firm’s public equity team and emerging markets teams, has been involved in the £1.3bn listed fund since its launch in 1995, although he did not become a named manager until 2013. Borho, […]
GCP Infrastructure (GCP) has repaid its revolving credit facility on which it had drawn £24m at 30 June following the £40m debt refinancing of its ground-mounted solar photovoltaic projects and £13m from the sale of an anaerobic digestion plant in Northern Island and two onshore wind assets at Winscales Moor and Burton Wold. James Carthew, […]
It is all too well known that the investment trust sector faces significant headwinds. Therefore, getting a new generation of investors interested in trusts is clearly important. It is in this context that the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) is stepping up its efforts, this week announcing the appointment of the marketing and advertising agency […]
To build a dynamic investment portfolio fit for the future, investors need to align themselves with areas of compelling structural growth. We believe that there are compelling growth opportunities to be found in the world’s emerging markets, where we see a confluence of positive drivers, from several structural and cyclical growth trends to a robust […]
Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF), the £235m battery fund that shocked investors with a 27% fall in net asset value in its annual results this month, has received a requisition notice from activist hedge fund Saba Capital. In a short statement yesterday evening, GSF said Saba, which this week lifted its stake to 17%, had […]
The market’s concentration around artificial intelligence (AI) stocks continues to challenge Alliance Witan (ALW). Extending a trend from the previous two years, the £4.9bn FTSE 100 constituent said its diversified multi-manager portfolio underperformed in the first half of the year, returning 7% against the 12.7% total return from the MSCI All Country World index. Alliance […]
LondonMetric (LMP) and Schroder Real Estate (SREI) have finalised their recommended all-share bid for Picton Property Income (PCTN). As announced in the revised offer this month, PCTN shareholders will receive 0.190 LMP and 0.894 SREI shares per PCTN share, currently worth 78.7p, an 8.2% discount to the net asset value at 30 June. The 20-year-old […]
European Opportunities Trust (EOT) has issued an update on the vote on Tuesday when shareholders approved its wind-down. This reveals 58% of shares in the £456m investment trust chose to switch into JPMorgan European Growth and Income (JEGI) meaning the top performer will receive £265m of assets to take it to just under £900m. A […]
Europe’s fragmented ETF market is set to gain its first consolidated source of trading data after the European Securities and Markets Authority authorised EuroCTP to operate the EU’s consolidated tape for shares and exchange-traded funds. The tape will combine real-time trading information from exchanges, multilateral trading facilities and approved publication arrangements into a single data […]
Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL) has narrowly outperformed its stock market benchmark for the first time in five years under new lead manager Indri van Hien. Hien took charge of the £517m investment trust last September following the retirement of Neil Hermon, who had run the listed fund for over 22 years. Assisted by deputy manager […]
Half-year results from SEGRO (SGRO) underline why US industrial real estate investment trust Prologis is keen to buy the European warehouse and data centre developer. SEGRO, which last week said it was minded to accept an improved £14bn shares and cash offer from Prologis, lifted its interim dividend by 4.5% to 10.14p per share after […]
Hammerson (HMSO), the £2bn UK real estate investment trust, has launched a £190m share issue to fund the £218m acquisition of a 50% stake in the Manchester Arndale shopping centre. The company is buying from Palma Arndale BidCo, which represents the investor consortium that bought the holding when its previous owner Intu collapsed in 2020. HMSO […]
Update: MIGO Opportunities Trust (MIGO) fund managers Tom Treanor and Charlotte Cuthbertson have backed the call from a fellow activist investor for Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID) to put itself up for sale. In their second quarter report, Treanor and Cuthbertson said the £533m battery fund was their biggest contributor to MIGO’s 5.9% investment return […]
PIMCO has launched a European ETF that combines exposure to US large-cap equities with an actively managed bond portfolio. The PIMCO Advantage StocksPLUS US Large Cap UCITS ETF aims to outperform the S&P 500 by adding returns generated through PIMCO’s fixed-income investment process. Rather than attempting to beat the index through stock selection, the strategy […]
Mobius (MMIT), the £113m emerging markets smaller companies trust, has bounced back from a difficult 2025 with a first half leap of 23% helped by gains on suppliers to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution while cutting losses from AI losers. The underlying return in net asset value (NAV) underpinned a 22.2% advance for shareholders in […]
Aberforth Smaller Companies (ASL) has emerged unscathed from the turbulent first half as its stock picks notched up a 5.5% total portfolio return to beat the 1.8% rise in the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies index. Share buybacks of £37.1m in the six months to 30 June helped to slightly narrow the share price discount and […]
Unite (UTG), the UK’s biggest student accommodation provider, is to pull out of nine cities in the next two years as the real estate investment trust reorganises its portfolio around the country’s 20 strongest universities. Under pressure after a 45% share price slump since unveiling its £634m top-of-the-market acquisition of Empiric Student Property last summer, […]
Biotech Growth (BIOG) has bagged its second bid for a company in a month with Forte Biosciences, a US immunological drug developer accounting for 3% of its portfolio, agreeing to a $2.2bn cash offer from Argenx SE, a Belgian-Dutch pharmaceutical company. Argenx yesterday agreed to pay $77 a share, 40.5% more than Forte’s closing price […]
Cordiant Digital Infrastructure (CORD) says its underperforming New York data centre, Hudson Interxchange, is “closer to breakeven” after signing a major new customer contract and receiving an expansion order from an existing customer. CORD bought 60 Hudson Street for £56m in January 2022 saying it was the “most interconnected facility in one of the most interconnected […]
Literacy Capital (BOOK), the £180m UK private equity fund focused on smaller businesses, is considering a move to the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market to boost its profile with investors. Shares in BOOK, which have been on the LSE’s Specialist Fund Segment since the investment trust listed in June 2021, stand nearly 38% below the […]
Shares in CEIBA Investments (CBA) have been suspended after the £48m Cuban commercial property fund fell foul of recently strengthened US sanctions against the Caribbean island. In a statement on Friday afternoon, CEIBA, an investor in Cuba’s hotel and tourism sector, warned of the “severe immediate implications” of being placed on the US Department of […]
Tritax Big Box REIT (BBOX) has achieved planning consent on its Manor Farm data centre development near Heathrow after a six-week judicial review brought by Slough Borough Council failed to overturn the approval granted by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government last month. Chief executive Colin Godfrey said a pre-let agreement for the 107MW […]
European active ETFs attracted $26.63bn of net inflows during the first half of 2026, almost double the $13.36bn collected over the same period last year. Investors added $6.36bn to active ETFs in June alone, according to ETFGI, taking their share of total European ETF inflows for the first half to around 10%. The wider European […]
The London Stock Exchange is preparing to launch a separate overnight venue, with exchange-traded products set to become the first securities available for near-continuous trading. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has announced plans to introduce trading in exchange-traded products (ETPs) for almost 24 hours a day, five days a week. The new venue, London Stock […]
