Welcome to the first edition of our weekly Investment Trust Times. As we develop our research into investment trusts in the UK, we intend to use this feature to bring you the latest news in the UK investment trust arena, including director changes, manager changes and any corporate activity that you should be aware of. You may also be interested in our weekly Fund Times and ETF Times for regular updates on the open-ended and exchange-traded funds arenas.
It’s September and It’s Back to School
We will also be launching a series of educational guides on Morningstar.co.uk starting with the very basics on investment trusts, through to the role they can play in a client’s portfolio, as well as some of the key similarities and differences between ITs, open-ended funds and ETFs.
This Week's Top Investment Trusts News
Witan Goes More Active Witan is handing two £100 million mandates to Lindsell Train and New Smith Asset Management this month. These groups replace Henderson UK Enhanced Index Portfolio and Witan Marathon UK Portfolio. The incoming managers join Artemis who already runs a UK equity portion of the Witan fund in an active style. Witan is an unusual mix of active and passive mandates.
EPE Special Opportunities – Acquisition of EPIC Private Equity Portfolio Approved Shareholders of EPE Special Opportunities have approved the proposed acquisition of EPIC Private Equity Portfolio at the EGM. Following the acquisition, the combined portfolio (with the exception of Process Components) will be held in a new limited partnership, ESO Investments 1 LP.
Framlington Innovative Growth Tender Offer Over-subscribed More than half of shareholders in Framlington Innovative Growth have voted against the proposed restructure of the trust, which planned to broaden the investment remit. Shareholders representing 53.1% of capital in the trust, managed by George Luckraft since January 2010, opted for a cash exit instead of the restructure. This has triggered an automatic wind-up of the trust, with shareholders able to take cash or switch into AXA Framlington UK Smaller Companies, managed by Chris St.John. Shareholders wishing to retain the skills of George Luckraft may be interested to read our Morningstar Qualitative Rating Report for AXA Framlington Equity Income.
Gartmore's Gervais Williams Resigns Gervais Williams has resigned from Gartmore and leaves the group at the end of September. Williams was the named manager on three investment trusts: Gartmore Fledgling, Gartmore Growth Opportunities and Gartmore Irish Growth, as well as the Gartmore UK & Irish OEIC. The trusts’ boards have yet to announce the new managers. Williams had been with Gartmore since 1993 and had helped to build the dedicated small-cap team at the firm.
Henderson Private Equity has announced that it is in discussions with the company’s manager concerning an orderly return of cash to shareholders. The proposal, if passed, would see all investments cease and the realisation of the portfolio of limited partnership interests, listed private equity holdings and other assets.
NB Distressed Debt is proposing to proceed with a secondary placing exceeding $75 million; the prospectus will be published later this month. This is one of very few closed-end debt funds in existence in the UK. Neuberger Berman believes there are sufficient opportunities in the current environment to issue a secondary placing and put those funds to work for the trust’s shareholders; total AUM for the asset manager in fixed-income assets exceeds $80 billion (to end March 2010).
Non-Exec Directors – New Appointments
Albion Income & Growth VCT – Robin Archibald
Ashmore Global Opps – Christopher Legge and Tony Kane
BH Macro – Huw Evans
Core VCT IV – David Adams
Core VCT V – David Adams
Gartmore Fledgling Trust – Robert Jeens
JPMorgan Russian Securities – Alex Easton
Non-Exec Directors – Retirements
Aberdeen New Dawn – Richard Bradley
Albion Income & Growth – David Watkins
Director Resignations
Troy Income & Growth – Martin Griffiths