Closed-end Fund News January 26-February 2
Acuity VCT 3 (AQT3) has reached a heads of terms agreement with a new investment manager for the company, Foresight Group. In December last year the company announced it had started to interview potential managers for the fund so we’re pleased to see this process has been completed in a timely fashion.
Shareholders in Castle Asia Alternative (CASA) will be asked in April to vote on the continuation of the company. The introduction of this facility was only agreed upon at the start of January and is already being brought into use.
The Directors of CMA Global Hedge Euro (CMAE) are recommending the company be placed into liquidation and an AGM will be held on 23 February 2011, at which shareholders will be asked to vote on this recommendation. This formalises the announcement first made in August 2010. The fund has struggled since the market downturn in September 2008 when gross assets fell from £120 million to less than £40 million. It also started trading on a wide discount to its NAV at that time and hasn’t managed to bring this back in to less than 20%.
Greenwich Loan Income Fund (GLIF) has completed its acquisition of Asset Management (AMN) and new shares in GLIF have been admitted to AIM as a result. This has resulted in an increase in the company’s gross assets of around £7 million.
JPMorgan Chinese (JMC) has secured a revolving £20 million credit facility with Scotiabank (Ireland) Ltd; the previous facility of £8 million has just expired. As a result of this new facility, the fund is now geared to its maximum permitted level of 115%.
Origo Partners (OPP) is planning to raise between $60 and 80 million through a placing of new redeemable convertible ZDPs. They will have a five-year life upon issue.
Schroder UK Mid & Small Cap (SCP) has changed its name to Schroder UK Mid Cap. It has also changed its investment objective to invest in mid-cap equities, with the aim of outperforming the FTSE 250 (ex-investment companies) index on a total return basis.