QuotedData investment companies roundup – December 2017 – is 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 November 2017. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford.
December Investment Companies Roundup
Money raised and returned in November
There were no new issues in November, in fact it seems as though many new funds are struggling to launch at the moment. Nevertheless, existing funds raised considerable amounts of money. Topping the list was CatCo Reinsurance Opportunities, which issued C shares worth around £400m to take advantage of a hoped for uplift in reinsurance premiums in 2018 post this year’s string of catastrophes. Civitas Social Housing was aiming to double in size, it didn’t quite get there but £302m is still an impressive result. Fair Oaks Income is the highest yielding and one of the best performing funds in the debt sector. Amedeo Air Four Plus raised some money to buy an Airbus A350-900, shrugging off the performance problems of the other aircraft leasing funds. Scottish Mortgage’s defence of its discount last month was rewarded this month as investors bought shares worth almost £42m. Foresight Solar was looking for £75m but raised £39m as it sought to finance its recent acquisitions in Australia and elsewhere. Impact Healthcare REIT raised £32.6m, in an oversubscribed issue, to fund its near-term pipeline of care home acquisitions. Jupiter UK Growth expanded as investors rolled over their investment in Jupiter Dividend and Growth, Supermarket Income REIT raised £20m to help buy a Scottish supermarket. A string of other funds issued stock worth more than £5m including: Worldwide Healthcare, Finsbury Growth & Income, Baillie Gifford Japan, Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon, Allianz Technology, Personal Assets, Primary Healthcare Properties, Custodian REIT and Capital Gearing.
In terms of money going out, the list is headed by Pantheon International which has done a deal whereby a large investor has swapped part of its stake in the company for £200m worth of Asset Linked Notes (effectively debt that gets repaid as Pantheon’s portfolio matures). Carador Income Fund offered its shareholders the chance to switch into a repurchase pool and 26.6% of the shares elected for this. Again, money will be returned as the portfolio is turned into cash. Unusually, JPMorgan Smaller Companies purchased £9.1m worth of its shares in one transaction. The other large repurchasers of stock were the usual suspects – Mercantile, Pershing Square Holdings, Alliance Trust, Utilico Emerging Markets and NB Global Floating Rate Income all bought back at least £5m worth of their shares.
QuotedData investment companies roundup – December 2017
