Prices and Markets

NextEnergy Solar piles into Italy - Next Energy Solar Fund has made its first investments in Italy; eight operating solar plants with an installed capacity of 34.5MWp at a total cost of €131.9m. Five of the acquired plants are in the region of Puglia (total 21.5MWp) and three are in the region of Campania (total 13.0MWp). The equity value of the acquisition amounts to EUR55.0m. The portfolio's total outstanding long-term non-recourse debt facilities amount to EUR76.9m. The Italian portfolio value...

Caledonia sells the Sloane Club - Caledonia Investments has today sold its 100% interest in The Sloane Club, the private members club located in the heart of Chelsea, London, to Sloane Investment Limited, a special purpose vehicle jointly owned by JK Chelsea Holdings Limited, an affiliate of the Queensway Group, and Clearbell Property Partners III LP, a real estate fund advised by Clearbell Capital LLP. The headline enterprise value agreed for the Club was GBP80.6m, which after fees and other...

Pacific Horizon - Top of the Pops! - Pacific Horizon (PHI) has benefitted strongly as both the Asia ex Japan region and technology stocks, to which PHI has a significant exposure, have rallied. This has seen it move up the competitor peer-group rankings so that it is first and second, in terms of NAV total return, over one and three years respectively. PHI’s manager, Ewan Markson-Brown, believes that the rising wealth of the middle class in Asia is likely to...

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...