Lazard World Trust Fund - Termination of coverage

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on Lazard World Trust Fund (WTR). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant.

Lazard World Trust Fund - Global opportunities with new 6% dividend policy

Lazard World Trust Fund (WTR) is differentiated from the majority of peers by its focus on discounted assets. Its portfolio is a blend of closed-end funds, investment trusts and holding companies that trade at a discount to the value of their assets, and in particular those where the underlying assets are also undervalued. Manager Kun Deng and his Discounted Assets team at Lazard Asset Management are focused on opportunities wherever they arise, with a longstanding bias to Asian and emerging mar

Lazard World Trust Fund- Overview

Lazard World Trust Fund is a value-oriented investment trust that aims for capital growth from a portfolio of companies which trade at a discount to their underlying NAV. The trust invests primarily in investment trusts and investment companies, as well as asset backed holding companies with similar characteristics, aiming to identify situations where there is a catalyst for change that has not been identified by the wider market, or where there is an opportunity via corporate governance to acti

What lies beneath

In a report early last year, we analysed the argument surrounding whether value investing (a style that has significantly underperformed relative to growth investing) was about to make a sustained comeback. Simply put, value investing involves buying shares in companies that the managers believe are ‘cheap’ relative to the wider market and their own histories. Many value managers, however, will only buy ‘cheap’ stocks where they have pinpointed a potential catalyst they believe will lead to shar

- Active investment in global opportunities

Lazard World Trust Fund (WTR, formerly The World Trust Fund) offers investors access to a concentrated portfolio of the ‘best ideas’ of Lazard Asset Management’s Discounted Assets team, who manage more than $5bn of assets invested globally in undervalued companies, such as closed-end funds, investment trusts and holding companies that are trading at a discount to the value of their assets. Following a number of changes in 2016, the fund now pays a distribution of 3.5% of year-end NAV, making it

New initiatives to boost shareholder value

Lazard World Trust Fund (WTR, formerly The World Trust Fund) seeks capital growth by investing globally in closed-end funds and holding companies that are trading at a discount to the value of their assets. Part of its approach involves working with portfolio holdings to unlock this value, and recent moves by the fund show it is prepared to practise what it preaches. So far in FY17, WTR has changed its name to link it more explicitly with its manager since launch in 1991; adopted a new benchmark

Proposed tender offer, changes to dividends and benchmark.

The Board of the Lazard World Trust Fund* (WTR) has proposed that the Fund acquire shares from shareholders, by way of a tender offer, up to 10% of the Fund’s issued share capital at a 2% discount to NAV, less the costs and expenses of the tender offer. In addition, the Board proposes to change its dividend policy to pay a yearly aggregate dividend per share, subject to regulatory approval, amounting to 3.5% of the NAV per share of the Fund at the start of each financial year. At the suggestion

New name, proven strategy

The portfolio manager of the recently renamed Lazard World Trust Fund* (WTR) believes that the current volatile state of markets is producing an exceptionally strong set of investment opportunities. With discounts widening , partly because of this global volatility, Kun Deng sees the potential for strong performance for the shareholders of WTR over the medium term. We continue to recommend that investors buy the fund.

Searching out discounted assets globally

The World Trust Fund (WTR) invests globally in a mix of closed-end funds (35.7% at 31 August), investment trusts (39.2%) and holding companies (27.3%) chosen for their discounted assets and potential for capital appreciation. The managers seek to identify catalysts for re-rating and will also engage actively with holdings to boost long-term shareholder value. Benchmarked against the MSCI AC World Index, the portfolio is heavily underweight the US (which the managers see as broadly overvalued) an

Deep-value discounted assets

The team at Lazard Asset Management, led by Kun Deng, is in charge of managing over US$5bn in its Discounted Assets Strategies. The World Trust Fund (WTR), the listed vehicle, is currently trading at an 11% discount and is an attractive vehicle for investors looking to benefit from the deep-value investment approach that the team specialises in. The extensive resources that the team has allow it to go beyond merely looking at the nominal discount of an asset and instead focus on the underlying d

IP Group - Several potential portfolio catalysts on the horizon

IP Group’s NAV declined by 13% in total return (TR) terms in FY23, affected by continued soft valuations across venture capital (VC) markets, as well as funding delays at some of its holdings. That said, management indicated that many of IP Group’s portfolio companies continued to make strong progress. Its maturing portfolio offers a number of potential NAV triggers and is now available at a wide 59% discount to NAV. We note that, as at end-2023, only 14% of IP Group’s portfolio was valued based

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

Meet, beat, repeat

FY23 - preparing for two high impact wells this year

LIBERUM: The Liberum Leisure Digest: NLW increase - pricing power is key

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

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 16/04/2024

16th April 2024 * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radical Limited for

Braemar - Diversification paying dividends

Braemar’s FY24 trading update was in line with expectations, with revenues of c £150m and underlying operating profit of c £18m. Underlying operations continue to expand and diversify and the company remains well-positioned to drive its future growth strategy. The trading outlook is promising and Braemar should be able to leverage its strong balance sheet in pursuit of strategic growth. We have maintained our underlying estimates for FY24 and FY25, but edge down the valuation based on the lower

Trinity Delta Lighthouse: Avacta

Trinity Delta view: The proprietary pre|CISION platform is key to Avacta’s investment case, hence updated data that continue to support key hypotheses for AVA6000 are reassuring. Future efficacy data from studies planned to start in H224 will be key, and could also help to more broadly validate pre|CISION. The recent £31.1m fundraise (March 2024 Lighthouse), which provides a cash runway of c 24 months ie into early 2026, will be used to advance the therapeutics pipeline, in particular AVA6000, a

hVIVO - FY 2023 results, revenue in-line, margin better, future is bright

hVIVO has delivered FY 2023A results in-line with the 30 January 2024 TU, with total customer revenues of £56m, growth of 16% versus 2022A. Other income related to tax credits added another £2.6m. 2024 revenue guidance of £62m has been reiterated, representing 11% growth over 2023A, and ahead of the £60m that we had previously forecast. The company has good visibility with the 2024 figure, with 90% already being covered by the existing orderbook (stands at £80m at the end of 2023), as well as in

UK Equities: Overlooked, oversold, and over here

In this note we look at the gap between perception and reality in the UK equity market, the opportunities and threats in the economic and market outlook, and the emerging consensus that the valuation discount versus other major markets is at or close to an inflection point. We consider the benefits of UK equity strategies both for income investors and for those seeking exposure to the higher growth potential of smaller and mid-cap companies.

Morning Note – 9 April 2024

Avacta Group - AACR update

As pre-announced, Avacta has presented the results of the 3-weekly P1 Arm 1 study of its AVA6000 lead clinical asset, based on the pre|CISION™ drug development platform at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual general meeting. The update does not cover progress on the ongoing 2-weekly dosing study which is underway, and Avacta confirmed current guidance on timing including being on track to begin the dose expansion study in 2H24. There are compelling updates on the progress repor

Top of the Pops

We reveal the winners of our investment trust ratings for 2024... Our ratings seek to reward closed-ended funds which deliver attractive and persistent performance characteristics in three categories which we think match up to broad goals investors usually have: long-term growth, income and growth, and high current income. This includes strong performance versus a fund’s underlying market, as well as attractive risk characteristics which we think suggests they could continue to be premium optio

Allenby Capital: Deltic Energy - Update

Deltic Energy plc (DELT.L) has announced some positive news concerning its 50% interest in the Selene joint-venture with Shell UK Ltd. The announcement concerns a farm-out to Dana Petroleum Ltd of a 25% interest in Licence P2437 which contains the Selene prospect. The farm-out calls for Deltic retaining a highly meaningful 25% interest in one of the most interesting prospects in terms of risk profile and scale in the Southern North Sea (SNS) Basin while largely eliminating exposure to the cost o