| Investment Trust- Thoughts (November 2024)

1st Nov '24 by Charles Mitchell

198 comments 5946 reads

Investment Trust- Thoughts (November 2024)

Links to older monthly thoughts-reader request.

October Thoughts September Thoughts. August Thoughts.

July Thoughts. June Thoughts May Thoughts. April Thoughts.

March Thoughts February Thoughts. November 2023 Thoughts

Investment trusts realising assets spreadsheet

For more information on Investment trusts visit:

Association of Investment Companies.

https://www.theaic.co.uk/
Free to sign up. On the site you can create portfolios, screen and compare Investment Trusts by Geographic region, Sector , Yield and more. A few Trusts who are not AIC members have limited data.

Jonathan Davies's website https://money-makers.co/.

You can also sign up(Paid membership) for insights on Investment Trusts from him and others. Weekly email and podcast .

Citywire do a daily Investment trust email. Free, does have sponsored content but keeps you up to-date with Investment Trust news.

https://citywire.com/investment-trust-insider

Trustnet have an Investment trust section. https://www.trustnet.com/

Plenty of performance data on that site.

Edison cover Investment Companies and do a monthly Investment trust round up. You can sign up for free.

https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/.

You can sign up for newsletters/fact sheets from most of the Investment Trusts on their websites.

For ETF's I use https://www.justetf.com/uk/. You can screen buy region, sector and see performance comparisons.

October 2024 Investment Trust monthly performance.

Top 10 (Equity only)

British and American Investment Trust (LON:BAF) +23.9%

Baillie Gifford Us Growth Trust (LON:USA) +7.7%

Schiehallion Fund (LON:MNTN) +6.6%

North American Income Trust (LON:NAIT) +6.1%

CT UK High Income Trust (LON:CHIB) +6.1%

Middlefield Canadian Income PCC (LON:MCT) +6%

Jupiter Green Investment Trust (LON:JGC) +6%

Jpmorgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust (LON:JMG) +5.9%

JPMorgan American Investment Trust (LON:JAM) +5%

Pantheon Infrastructure (LON:PINT) +4.5%

Bottom 10

Molten Ventures (LON:GROW) -15.8%

Oryx International Growth Fund (LON:OIG) -12.8%

Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Investment Trust (LON:DSM) -12.2%

Chrysalis Investments (LON:CHRY) -8.6%

Miton UK Microcap Trust (LON:MINI) -8.5%

Fidelity European Trust (LON:FEV) -7.5%

Blackrock Greater Europe Investment Trust (LON:BRGE) -7.2%

Fidelity Japan Trust (LON:FJV) -6.9%

HICL Infrastructure (LON:HICL) -6.7%

Top 5 (All Trusts)

Tetragon Financial (LON:TFGS) +35.5%

British and American Investment Trust (LON:BAF) +23.9%

Atrato Onsite Energy…

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Tim Boucher

28th Nov '24

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF)

Interesting article from Ian Cowie (ii writer) today, link below - he's sold VOF for fears that Trump could be going in hard for Vietnam (as he comes to realise that China is too large to hit with 60% tariffs). Who knows whether he is correct, but is an interesting viewpoint.

https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-...

Charles Mitchell

Tim- it is what I am in the process of doing. Lack of research available and price movements for sometimes no apparent reason.

KevinS1

And Pershing Square Holdings (LON:PSH) has an excellent track record. If ou can get into it at times of low, it should bode well for the future. I've held for a while, top sliced when it did very well a short while back, and like Charles will be looking to add.

Graham Wells

Hi Ken,

I also bought a small holding in CQS New City High Yield Fund (LON:NCYF) at 45.35p around the same time, after you bought it to my attention. It’s up 13.67% as well as the dividends between then and now. It has been a little bit higher previously and may go higher again when interest rates drop again. I treat it a bit like having money in bonds. (with a little capital gain on top) as you say, now at a 5.86% premium with a 8.74% dividend yield.

Graham.

29th Nov '24

Augmentum Fintech (LON:AUGM) Meeting starts in 30 minutes. I will be asking questions re holdings and asking if the managers would use the performance fee of £19m to buy shares in the open market !Assuming the payment was approved by shareholders. https://www.investormeetcompan...

ken mitchell

Thanks Tim for that warning from Ian Cowie. What Trump does is often guesswork. Yet another thing I learned the hard way though, is not to invest on guesses of what might happen, either mine or writers like Ian Cowie. .Too often they were wrong.As always though off it works for us then do it, including on trying to preempt what might ir might not happen.

My success rate was far better though once I based my investment decisions on what is happening and on what the Companies and Investment Trusts I hold are saying and reporting in their updates.

Also the obvious like the figures, and for me, buy low when sentiment is bad and top slice or sell when good news looks fully priced in. A current non Investment Trust example is Intercede (LON:IGP) where I bought (that decision helped by Paul Scott’s excellent analysis) around £1 and took the stake out with PE above 40 at £2 and sold the rest recently at £1.70. Intercede (LON:IGP) would be tempting again around £1.10 assuming news updates still good. But, and another factor in the sell decision, was latest update less upbeat than hoped.

Shares like Intercede (LON:IGP) and Cavendish Financial (LON:CAV) which could fly if there are eventually a series of IPOs at long last for smaller companies, are just the fun edge of our portfolios. The portfolios dominated by the long term Investment Trust holdings often covered in posts on these threads.

Good question Charles!

That’s how I see Trusts like CQS New City High Yield Fund (LON:NCYF) and Twentyfour Select Monthly Income Fund (LON:SMIF) Graham, so the way to do it is to buy the occasional dips as you did, and then there’s that useful capital gain on top of bagging the highest point the dividend yield gets to as well.

If he answers it ? I am also puzzled why Tide still needs follow on investments.

Harbourvest Global Private Equity (LON:HVPE) Shareholder letter to the board. https://www.stockopedia.com/sh...

As usual Tim Levene is very convincing. Rather dodged the performance fee issue I thought- it is deducted from the NAV. I am tempted to increase my holding again. Maybe we will see some of the larger shareholders push for a solution. Share buybacks are not the answer in my opinion, shareholders need to see some significant exits over the next 18 months- in my opinion. I am going to mull it over the weekend.

raggedtp

I am climbing the 'wall of worry', having had a pretty full position in SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (LON:SEIT) for months already and not sure how easy the RCF extension will be to fund Onyx and EVN. So I am sure UK shareholders are getting the shivers of DI9 down their backs. But these are much smaller proportions of the business than for DI9.

And the growing businesses are not influenced by the IRA. Onyx in particular is quite like ROOF (Atrato Onsite Energy), so frustratingly being bought out this year. In fact the ROOF sale is the main reason I noticed SEIT in the first place. Given the dramatically reduced prices of solar PV, commercial behind-the-meter solar installations just make business sense, and the opportunity is HUGE.

So, with a touch of trepidation, I bought a little more yesterday, hoping for reassurance next week, and assured almost instant dividend of 3% being secured within a week.

If you want to know more about the man and ideas behind SEIT (and have a dog to walk meanwhile...), try https://www.cleaningup.live/the-biggest-dirtiest-secret-of-the-energy-industry-ep184-jonathan-maxwell/.

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (LON:FGEN) is another recent buy of mine. I was reassured by the recent presentation on IMC. If you are considering it, these presentations are a great use of your time. I think the management are learning the lesson that hydrogen is a risky niche, but the write-down of their one investment in that area knocked their share price by twice as much. Everything else seems OK. This is an IT (formerly John Laing Environmental) that is established, diversified, solid, with plenty of indexed uplift and ability to keep raising their divi with inflation. I added at sub 74p. At 75p to buy now, the div is well over 10% and rising, ex-d on Dec 5th, current discount 33%. Really?

No, you won't double your capital quickly, but I think that in a year's time, those of maturer years will wonder why they didn't buy more and will they ever see such pension opportunities again in their lifetimes?

Harmony Energy Income Trust (LON:HEIT) NAV at 31/10/24 was 88.51.

After DGI9 I am loathe to assume any buyer will be at NAV. They state the portfolio is now fully operational- though suffering outages. They are using a discount rate of 10% for operational projects.

Asset Sale Process

As previously announced, the Board appointed JLL to seek offers for some or all of the Company's assets. The process has attracted strong interest and an encouraging number of non-binding offers were received in September, relating to both individual assets as well as the full portfolio. A selected number of parties were allowed to progress through to the detailed due diligence stage. The level of due diligence being undertaken is thorough and has resulted in bidders requesting more time. The transaction timetable has therefore extended by one month. Subject to receipt of sufficiently attractive final offers, the intention would be for the Company to enter exclusivity with a preferred bidder in December with a view to signing binding agreements in January 2025.

Just updated the NAV's on the Realising Assets spread sheet. One Trust I am going to look at is Aquila Energy Efficiency Trust (LON:AEET) . Has anyone researched this

Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust (LON:DNE) (I hold)

Realisation of EV Holdings Limited ("EV") and update on winding-up proposals

Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust PLC ("DENT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that regulatory approval has now been granted for the realisation of EV, a provider of high-performance video cameras and quantitative visual analytics to the global energy industry. The investment in EV is held via DENT's interest in Dunedin Buyout Fund III LP.

As at 30 September 2024 the Company's investment in EV was valued at £2.6m. Proceeds received from the transaction amount to £2.7m, consisting entirely of capital.

Following this realisation, the Company has remaining unlisted investments valued at £5.9m, cash balances of £26.8m and other net assets of £0.5m. As previously noted, the Company also has outstanding capital commitments to limited partnership funds of £6.9m.

Pursuant to its managed wind-down strategy, the Company's investment objective is to conduct an orderly realisation of its assets in a manner that seeks to achieve a balance between maximising the value of the Company's investments and progressively returning cash to shareholders. The Board and its advisers intend recommending to shareholders a members' voluntary liquidation of the Company. Any such winding-up will require shareholder approval and the Company intends to publish a circular to convene a general meeting shortly. A further announcement will be made imminently.

Had this now- which I am not sure I fully understand "

The performance fee is notional as it represents the performance fee that would be due if all the investments were sold at their book value on the balance sheet date. It is deducted from NAV in order to fairer represent what shareholders can expect to receive.

It varies as valuations go up and down but would only ever be paid once disposals have returned the cost of investments in that performance fee basket plus a hurdle IRR return."

number33

Virtual Investment Trust Portfolio - November Update

That reads like the best of the Humphrey gobbledygook in Yes Minister, Charles. £19 million seems very excessive!

Thanks for all your digging and very helpful posts here on Augmentum Fintech (LON:AUGM. Their updates have become a bit like a stuck record specially so the last 3 lines in the comment from Tom Levene pasted below.

The “we expect significant capital growth over the LONG TERM “ (my capitals) and then “we are confident that patient investors will be rewarded over time,” strongly hint not to expect significant realisations or other big share price boosting news shorter term.

I still hold a full stake but will probably sell half next week. A possible place for some of the proceeds might be Blackrock Latin American Investment Trust (LON:BRLA) but I haven’t checked it out properly yet. It’s the share price approaching multi year low that might fit the buy the big tip tactic that often works very well.

Here’s that comment from Tim Levene:-

Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech Management Limited commented: “This is another period where underlying growth across our portfolio remains strong. Across our top 10 positions, representing nearly 80% of NAV, revenues have grown 52% over the last 12 months. Since listing we have delivered almost £100 million in realisations at an average premium of 33%, and expect significant capital growth over the long term. The asset value of our top four positions plus cash exceeds our market capitalisation, and with a further 22 assets in the portfolio, we are confident that patient investors will be rewarded over time.”

I hold Blackrock Latin American Investment Trust (LON:BRLA) - bought to early but I am pretty sure the region will work out. Last time I checked Div looked OK. Brazil is the largest area they are exposed to so what companies are paying out is important.

Investment Trust- Thoughts (November 2024)

Investment Trust- Thoughts (November 2024)

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Charles Mitchell

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