BlackRock Income & Growth

BRIG is trading at a wide discount versus its five-year history which could be an attractive entry point for long-term investors…

The Hardman & Co Monthly: September 2023

Feature article: Equity Income – UK or Global? Should investors widen their horizons? Introduction: ► The UK Equity Income sector (UKEI) is the fourth-largest investment company (IC) sector in the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) universe, with £12.5bn of assets (as at August 2023), and is the traditional home for investors looking for income in the equity market. ► The UKEI not only provides investors with a better dividend yield than the ge

Hardman & Co Insight: Equity Income – UK or Global? Should investors widen their horizons?

Introduction ► The UK Equity Income sector (UKEI) is the fourth-largest investment company (IC) sector in the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) universe, with £12.5bn of assets (as at August 2023), and is the traditional home for investors looking for income in the equity market. ► The UKEI not only provides investors with a better dividend yield than the general UK market, but also has a strong track record of dividend growth. Indeed, many funds feature on the AIC’s “dividend heroes”

BlackRock Income & Growth

BRIG is an attractive long-term total return option…

BlackRock Income & Growth

BRIG provides the assurance of a solid income to see you through the short-term uncertainty...

BlackRock Income & Growth - Overview

BlackRock Income & Growth (BRIG) offers a focussed portfolio of companies, picked for their ability to pay a solid and growing dividend income over the long term. In March 2021, the board increased the proportion that can be invested overseas from 5% to 20%, providing an even greater opportunity for stock picking. The majority of the Portfolio (c. 70%) will typically be invested in ‘income generators’, those companies which generate sustainable free cash flow with a balance between re-investing

Brighter - Termination of coverage

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on AdAlta (1AD), Acorn Income Fund (AIF), GCP Student Living (DIGS) and Brighter (BRIG). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant.

BlackRock Income & Growth - Overview

BlackRock Income & Growth (BRIG) is an all-cap strategy which seeks to balance its stylistic exposure whilst looking to grow both capital and income over the long term through investment in UK equities. BRIG has been run by the UK equity income team at BlackRock since April 2012. Whilst the managers, Adam Avigdori and David Goldman, utilise a consistent stock analytical approach across BRIG and their open-ended products, they look to utilise the closed-ended structure of BRIG to incorporate les

Brighter - Poised for revenue momentum

Brighter recently reported its results for the first quarter of 2021 and continues to be poised for revenue momentum at the end of the year. Actiste has market approval in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Thailand, as well as a five-year distribution agreement in Qatar and five-year agreements in both Nigeria and Ghana. Once registrations are in place in Nigeria and Ghana, Brighter expects to receive €2.3m (SEK23.4m) and €1.2m (SEK12.2m), respectively, in initial orders in those

Brighter - Progress in multiple regions

Brighter has been making progress in multiple regions for Actiste, which now has market approval in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Thailand, as well as a five-year distribution agreement in Qatar and five-year agreements in both Nigeria and Ghana. Once registrations are in place in Nigeria and Ghana, Brighter expects to receive €2.3m (SEK23.4m) and €1.2m (SEK12.2m), respectively, in initial orders in those countries. The approval processes in Nigeria and Ghana are expected to b

BlackRock Income & Growth - Overview

BlackRock Income & Growth (BRIG) targets growth in both income and capital over the long term. BRIG has been run by the extensive team at BlackRock since 2012 which also runs a successful open-ended UK equity income product. The open-ended fund has successfully increased its distribution every year for the past 30 years. Whilst there is significant overlap between BRIG and its better-known open-ended counterpart, the managers of BRIG, Adam Avigdori and David Goldman, are keen to take advantage

Hold fast

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how, that election had us all talking about sterling (well, some of us). Instead now we are hard put not to talk about mass dividend cuts, with Link Group estimating dividend cuts of 47% or more in the UK equity market. Way back in those distant epochs of early December 2019, we appeared to be approaching a greater degree of certainty about the shape of the future in the UK: an election was in the offing which promised to help resolve the outlook for o

BlackRock Income and Growth Investment Trust - Overview

BlackRock Income & Growth (BRIG) targets growth in both income and capital over the long term. With an extensive team that also runs a successful open-ended UK equity income product, BlackRock have been running BRIG since 2012; the open-ended fund has successfully increased its distribution every year for the past 30 years. Whilst there is significant overlap between the trust and its open-ended relation, the managers, Adam Avigdori and David Goldman, are keen to take best advantage of the trust

Regime change: how manager changes impact performance

All leaderships come to an end at some point. With investment trusts, however, it is rarely the electorate (aka shareholders) who initiate the change in manager. In some cases it is the board. In others, it is the management company itself recognising the need for a new manager, and replacing them before the board feels the need for more decisive action. A change instigated by the board will often result in a transformative outcome for a trust, perhaps with a change in management house as well a

Holding something in reserve

It used to be said that in central London you were never more than six feet from a rat. Nowadays, the saying has been updated: you are never more than six feet from a Pret-aManger. Before Pret came McDonald’s, serving the same burgers in the same buns from London to Tokyo. Such was the ubiquitous nature of the fast food giant that in 1986 The Economist launched the ‘Big Mac Index’. Presently, this famous index of relative currency strength suggests sterling is seriously undervalued [1] . Sterlin

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...

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.

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

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

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

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

Jupiter Green

JGC’s fundamental story continues to show resilience, but the discount remains wide…

AUM up 30% in FY24, record flows, forecasts raised

AUM jumped £3.8bn or +30% in FY24, reaching £16.6bn on 31 Mar 24, 12% above our previous forecast of £14.7bn. Including 50%-owned 8AM Global, Assets Under Influence hit £17.6bn. Investment performance provided a tailwind, adding £1.5bn to AUM. But our key takeaway from Tatton’s hugely impressive last few years, is that it has designed and implemented a superior offering in platform-MPS with net flows consistently far higher than peers. That leadership looks even more pronounced in H2-24 with net

Lowland Investment Company - Is the tide turning?

Lowland Investment Company’s (LWI’s) unconstrained, multi-cap investment policy differentiates it from most peers in the AIC UK Equity Income sector. It offers investors broad market exposure, outside of the large, traditional ‘income stocks’ at a 13% discount to NAV. The underperformance of small- and mid-cap companies versus larger peers has slowed and a turnaround would be very positive for LWI. Portfolio returns are already benefiting from acquisition activity, spurred by low valuations, and