Prices and Markets

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity planning significant private equity investment - VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund has published accounts for the year ended 30 June 2017. The NAV increased in US Dollar terms by 25.5% to USD4.73, while the share price rose by 35.5% to USD3.82. Their listed equity portfolio returned 32%, outperforming the VN Index by 12%. VOF benefited from a number of major exits - especially sales of Direct Real Estate and operating assets - generating USD156 million in cash and receivables. These exits...

Alpha Real gets planning for Frankfurt data centre - Alpha Real Trust has successfully secured detailed planning consent for a 40,338 square metre data centre building at its data centre site, together with a commitment from the local utility provider to connect a 35 MVA dual feed power supply to the site. As announced in November 2016, Alpha Real Trust entered into a conditional agreement to purchase, via a SPV, an industrial site in Frankfurt which it identified as being...

K&C REIT hopes for transformation - tiny K&C REIT has big ambitions. It plans to consolidate its shares on a 10x1 basis and issue up to £150m shares at 100p to fund the acquisition of portfolios of residential property. It hopes to top up the £150m equity issue with £100m of debt. Duncan Walker, previously investment director at Helical Plc, will be appointed as an additional non-executive director of the company when the new shares are admitted to trading. In...

Electra to hand back another £350m and drop private equity from name - Electra has completed what it termed as "Phase II" of its strategic review. The conclusions are: Continue to focus on optimising return on shareholder capital. No new investment in current market conditions.  However, should conditions change the Board will consider further investment. A further special dividend of GBP350 million, or 914p per share. This is to be paid on 1 December 2017 to shareholders on the register of members at...

Quarterly investment companies roundup – Third quarter 2017 - Markets moved up a little over the course of the three months ended 30 September 2017. Regionally, emerging markets did well. The pound strengthened a bit relative to the US dollar but was flat against the euro. The oil price rose by more than 20%. In the investment companies sector, there were quite a few new issues. The median discount across all funds is still on a narrowing trend. The median premium...

Aberdeen Latin American Income (ALAI) has announced its annual results for the year ended 31 August 2017. During the period, the company's NAV total return was 25.1% and its share price total return was 23.7%, which the company says compares against a benchmark total return of 21.4%. The superior NAV total return reflects a widening of the company’s discount during the period from 11.8% to 13.3%. Brazilian exposure the biggest contributor The manager says that Brazil was the biggest contributor...

Dunedin Enterprise sells Kee Safety - Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust says that a contract has been signed, subject to completion, to sell its investment in Kee Safety, the market-leading provider of collective fall protection, safety systems and solutions.  Completion of the transaction is due on 31 October 2017. Capital and accrued interest in Kee Safety was valued at GBP11.6m as at 30 June 2017, the last published valuation.  Total proceeds from the sale will amount to GBP15.9m (an uplift of...

Qatar fund to become Gulf Investment Fund - Qatar Investment Fund intends to change its investment policy from a largely Qatar-focused investment strategy to a broader Gulf Cooperation Council ("GCC") investment strategy. Currently, the investment policy enables it to invest up to 15% in GCC countries (namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman and Bahrain) other than Qatar. The proposed change in investment policy will remove the 15% limit and enable it to increase its investment allocation to other GCC countries and provide the Investment...

Shock figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that Britain is £490 billion poorer than was thought. Britain’s stock of wealth has fallen from a surplus of of £469 billion to a net deficit of £22 billion. The UK has totally lost its reserve of foreign assets, and is actually in a much more vulnerable deficit, losing any safety margin just Theresa May’s government is attempting a breakthrough in a crucial stage of Brexit negotiations. This massive...