QuotedData investment companies roundup: Our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of April 2017. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford.
Money in: The only new launch in April was EJF Investments, a £69m fund trying to take advantage of the changing landscape in financial services. Aberdeen Diversified Income & Growth expanded by £75m thanks to the rollover of money from Aberdeen UK Tracker. Funding Circle SME Income raised £142m in a C share issue. BBGI SICAV raised £58.5m from investors in a placing. Scottish Mortgage continues to expand – £33.6m is a substantial amount to raise from tap issues. Secure Income REIT issued shares worth £11.6m to its investment adviser in settlement of an incentive fee. In a similar transaction, the managers of Taliesin Property Fund were issued shares worth €10.5m. Schroder Asian Total Return, Personal Assets, MedicX and Finsbury Growth & Income all issued shares worth at least £5m during April. Fair Oaks Income Fund saw 47.4m of its shares reclassified as 2014 shares (these shares relate to a separate pool of assets that will be turned into cash over time) and issued 68.9m C shares.
May 2017 investment companies news roundup: FastForward Innovations’ share price recovered as it sold the stake in Blue Star Capital that it received in exchange for its shares in SatoshiPay. EPE Special Opportunities’ shares rose after it published its annual report, it has also been buying back its shares. Similarly, Globalworth’s shares rose after its results were published, despite posting a fall in its NAV. UK small cap stocks had a better month, and this is the driver behind all of the positive NAV moves in second table. Acorn Income Fund did particularly well thanks to the gearing provided by its zero dividend preference shares.
Hansteen upped its bid for Industrial Multi Property. Resources funds extended their falls on the back of weak commodities prices and feature prominently in both tables with, uranium specialist, Geiger Counter the worst performer and, gold specialist, Golden Prospect Precious Metals, the second worst in NAV terms. Both funds have announced that they hope to issue subscription shares. Two funds, Ranger Direct Lending and SQN Asset Finance Income, ran into problems with borrowers (you can read more about this here). Sterling strengthened and this dragged down the NAVs of funds such as Prospect Japan and Middlefield Canadian Income.