Private markets: A closer look at the expanding private debt opportunity

We look at the attractions of the private debt market, historically the hunting ground of the institutional investor

Spring Conference ‘21

Starting on Tuesday we heard from managers running investment trusts across all of the world’s major equity regions and found a bullish but cautious outlook was prevalent as the tide begins to turn on COVID-19.

Starwood European Real Estate Finance - Overview

Starwood European Real Estate Finance (SWEF) lends against commercial property in Europe and the UK. As a provider of debt financing, SWEF sits further up the capital structure than equity investors, such as most trusts in the AIC UK Commercial Property sector. This means its track record of steady returns has not been disrupted by the pandemic, as we discuss in the performance section. SWEF has been able to maintain its dividend payments over 2020 and also not seen falls to its portfolio valua

Kepler’s top-rated investment trusts for 2021

Kepler’s investment trust ratings seek to identify the top-performing closed-ended funds in the growth, income & growth and alternative income categories. Previously presented only on our retail site, today we can unveil for both professional and retail readers the winners of the ratings for 2021. Our ratings are designed to capture attractive and persistent performance characteristics and to reward long-term success. Like all quantitative systems they are backward-looking, but we have attempted

Starwood European Real Estate Finance - Overview

Starwood European Real Estate Finance (SWEF) lends against commercial property in Europe and the UK, aiming to find attractive investments from a risk/reward perspective in areas of the market that are less well served by the bank market (which has remained constrained in the post-global financial crisis environment). SWEF is managed by a subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group, one of the world’s largest real-estate investors, which brings a huge origination platform, specialist knowledge and stro

Fidante Daily Digest

SWEF – Starwood European Real Estate Financing – Investment update | SEQI – Sequoia Economic Infrastructure – RCF and possible fundraising |

Fidante Daily Digest

Starwood European Real Estate Financing – Results of fundraising | GCP Student Living – Proposed fundraising | Civitas Social Housing – Q1 2019 NAV and update | GCP Infrastructure Investments – Response to BeST regulatory announcement

Fidante Daily Digest

Starwood European Real Estate Finance – Proposed fundraising

Fidante Daily Digest

Grit Real Estate Income – Results of IPO | 3i Infrastructure – New investment | Starwood European Real Estate Finance - Q2 2018

LIBERUM: Plus500: Strategic progress pays dividends

Tatton Asset Management (TAM LN) - Record net inflows

Tatton, the leading on-platform discretionary fund manager (DFM) and IFA support services Group has released a trading update ahead of its results to 31 March 2024, due on 18 June 2024.

Hardman & Co Insight: 2023 was an annus horribilis for Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy

The focus of Hardman & Co Research is on the nine quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and on the 22 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs): the stocks analysed are all members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). We are updating our publication of January 2023, assessing both the lacklustre share price performances during 2023 and the key issues, including interest rates, inflation and power prices. As a 31-strong group, its combined market capitalisation is no

Ondo InsurTech FY24 Trading Update

Ondo InsurTech has released a brief post-YE update revealing its good progress continued through 2H24 and consequently FY24 will be in line with market expectations.

BlackRock World Mining

BRWM’s managers: we see all the classic signs of high commodity prices...

Foxtons Group (FOXT LN) - 1Q24 IMS shows real momentum

Foxtons Group plc first quarter revenue rose 9% to £35.7m (1Q23: £32.9m) with growth delivered across all business segments. Trading is in line with management's expectations.

Morning Note – 18 April 2024

NextEnergy Solar Fund - Attractive Refinancing

The refinancing of a £135m revolving credit facility and the extension of a similar £70m facility gives NESF firepower as development opportunities for new solar are especially attractive thanks to lower module prices in Europe. They give the fund key financial flexibility at a critical time as it pursues its capital recycling programme.

Foxtons Group - FY24 underpinned by market share gains

Foxtons Group’s Q1 revenue grew by 9%, supported by growth in all three divisions as the strategic initiatives continue to gain significant momentum, driven by investment in staff, best-in-class bespoke IT and data platforms. This implies that Foxtons’ medium-term targets are now coming into focus. Market share is being gained in all divisions, which puts Foxtons in a good position as the sales market stabilises. We maintain our valuation of 132p/share and believe that if interest rates stabilis

NextEnergy Solar Fund – High- and growing-income opportunity?

NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) is almost 10 years old. Since launch, it has built a £1.2bn, 933MW portfolio of 100 operating solar assets, powering the equivalent of over 330,000 homes, declared dividends totalling £333m, and avoided the emission of about 2.2 Mt CO2e. NESF is on track to pay 8.35p in dividends, with forecast dividend cover of about 1.3x. Share price weakness that has afflicted the whole sector means that dividend translates to a yield of 11.1%, one of the highest in its sector, a

The Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2024

Feature article: Steady as she goes, but could be better: A review of investment company liquidity since 2016 Liquidity is the lifeblood of equity markets. The measurement of liquid asset availability to a market or company is a way of gauging a market’s health. This article builds on our previous work, which analysed the liquidity data for non-financial trading companies, by applying the same analytical techniques to the investment companies (IC) space. We analyse liquidity for ICs as a whol

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 19 February 2024

M Winkworth+ (WINK, House Stock at 163p) - Solid FY23A results, well placed to grow

Hybridan Research: Sector Review: Artificial intelligence in UK cybersecurity: the human uplift 17/04/2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. Whilst new AI models, architectures, and innovations are emerging to protect the security posture of organisations, attackers are also benefiting from deepfakes, sophisticated phishing, and automation of malicious codes. To ensure the impact of AI on cybersecurity to be a net-positive, we need to pit good AI against bad AI. Point solutions enhanced with machine learning: Global cybersecurity has been built with point soluti

Resilient FY24, confident long-term outlook

Vp’s full year update highlights sector-leading results, once again benefiting from the diversity of its end markets and the quality of its specialist businesses. With results expected to be broadly in line with expectations, we trim our FY24 PBT forecast by c.5% to £39.0m, a shade below the FY23 outturn (£40.2m). We consider this an impressively resilient performance set against a mixed market backdrop. Under new leadership, a strategic refresh is underway and management is confident in long