NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited

(“NESF” or the “Company”)

1GW Milestone and 50MW Energy Storage Asset Online

NextEnergy Solar Fund, a leading specialist investor in solar energy and energy storage, is pleased to announce that the Company’s maiden standalone 50MW energy storage asset, named Camilla, has successfully begun commercial operations.  This is a significant milestone for the Company as it increases NESF’s total installed net capacity above 1GW to 1,014MW.

Camilla connected to the National Grid in December 2023 and progressed successfully through its final phases of commissioning early this year.  Camilla is a 50MW 1 hour lithium-ion battery located in Fife, Scotland, which has been pre-configured for augmentation to 2 hours.  Camilla is the first asset to be delivered through the Company’s £300m Joint Venture Partnership programme with Eelpower Limited.

The Company is encouraged by the recent progress made by the National Grid as it continues to make improvements in the dispatching capability of batteries in the Balancing Mechanism and the introduction of additional reserve products.  This is positive for new operating assets entering the market at this point, such as Camilla, as it represents additional revenue opportunities.

On 20 February 2024 National Grid ESO published the provisional results of its T-1 Capacity Market Auction for delivery in 2024/25.  Camilla successfully bid and secured a contract with a clearing price of £35.79/kW.  The contract was secured with a derated capacity of 5.659MW and is expected to generate £202k (£4k/MW on a total capacity basis) of additional contracted revenue for the period 1 October 2024 through to the end of September 2025.

The Company’s disciplined approach to capital allocation focuses on accretive investment activity, consistent with the Company’s investment objective of providing ordinary shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns, principally in the form of regular dividends.  

Helen Mahy, Chair of NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited, commented:

“I am pleased that NESF has achieved commercial operations of its first standalone energy storage asset, Camilla a 50MW battery in Fife Scotland.  Camilla is conveniently located adjacent to the Glenniston substation and is already connected to the National Grid, supporting constraints on Grid interconnector capacity to areas of high demand. Energy storage assets will play a crucial role in the UK’s transition to net zero and we are proud to play a central role in achieving this.”

Michael Bonte-Friedheim, Founding Partner and CEO, NextEnergy Group, commented:

“I’m delighted to confirm that Camilla’s energisation increases NESF’s total installed net capacity to over 1GW, alongside the recent energisation of NESF’s first two international solar co-investments.  Expanding into energy storage complements NESF’s existing large portfolio of solar assets on a standalone and co-located basis and provides multiple diversification benefits for shareholders.”

Mark Simon, CEO of Eelpower, commented:

“Eelpower is very pleased that the 50MW project at Camilla Farm has entered commercial operations and are proud to have delivered it with our partners NESF.  We look forward to Camilla joining the market-leading assets we have commissioned over the last seven years, delivering on the promise that flexible battery assets represent for Scotland and supporting the transition to net zero in Great Britain.“

If u start out investing for compound interest with limited capital, the compound effect can seem very slow.

If u have many years of investing too look forward to, u may decide to go for some growth and accept a lower yield.

Risk versus Reward.

If your growth shares print a profit u could use those profits to re-invest in the higher yielding Trusts and grow your Snowball quicker.

If they don’t print a profit, u will still have some dividends to re-invest.

If u are near to retirement, u may decide the safety of Investment

Trust dividends are safer for your hard earned.

The emotional benefits of dividend re-investment.
In fact, with this investment strategy you can actually welcome falling share prices.

Belt and braces, where even if your share pick disappoints u can still be right.

The blog portfolio earns passive income from investing in a portfolio of Investment Trusts.

The seed capital was 100k, whilst u may not have the cash to invest u can add to a SIPP, where the government adds to your payment and build your dividend stream.

The current 10 year fcast for the portfolio is 14 – 16k dividends a year to be used for a ‘pension’, with no further capital to be added.

A current annuity for 100k is around 7k pa and u have to forego all your capital.

This year’s fcast is 8k with a target of 9k, the portfolio’s dividend stream is currently ahead of the target.

If u have longer than ten years before u need the income, u could let the power of compound interest grow your Snowball even bigger.

The Motley Fool

I’d follow Warren Buffett to target effortless passive income

Story by Christopher Ruane

Imagine earning over a million pounds a day on average in passive income from a single shareholding. Legendary investor Warren Buffett does not need to imagine that. His company Berkshire Hathaway receives that much in dividends simply from one of its holdings, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO).

My own passive income streams will never be anything like that large. But I still think I can learn from Buffett when it comes to building them.

Here are a few simple lessons from investing the Buffett way I believe can help me build income streams that are genuinely passive and do not require me to work hard.

Invest for the long term
The Coke stake is lucrative for Buffett and it has become more so over time. The company is a Dividend Aristocrat, having raised its dividend annually for over half a century.
So although the last time Buffett bought a Coke share was decades ago, his income streams from the shareholding have grown regularly over time.

Market value of Warren Buffett’s conglomerate nears $1 trillion

Taking a long-term approach to investing can pay dividends – not only metaphorically, but literally!

Avoiding yield traps
Some investors make the mistake of thinking a share that has a high dividend yield today will necessarily be a lucrative source of passive income.

But dividends are never guaranteed. Indeed, a high yield can sometimes reflect City fears that a company’s business might not support the sort of dividends in future that it pays now.

Think about where income comes from
Again, Buffett’s choice of Coca-Cola is instructive. It serves a large market that is likely to stay big, in the form of soft drinks. Its iconic brand and proprietary formula give the company a sustainable advantage over rivals.

The product is cheap to make but can be sold at a premium price, helping the business generate spare cash it can use to fund dividends.

That has been true in the past – but it also seems likely to be the case in the future. Of course, it may not. For example, growing health consciousness could hurt profits. Then again, this might open up opportunities for new products.

Like Buffett, when assessing the passive income streams a share might generate for me, I do not focus only on its dividend history. I think about how the business can generate income in the future.

Compounding dividends
Although Buffett has set up massive dividend income streams, Berkshire does not pay a dividend. Instead, it puts the money it earns to work by buying new shares and businesses.

As a private investor, I can do the same simply by compounding my dividends. That may reduce (or eliminate) the passive income I earn from shares for now. But it could lead to bigger passive income streams down the line.

The current 2024 target for the blog portfolio is a snowball of 9k, only a target not the fcast.

If u compound 9k at 7% for 9 years that would equal ‘a pension’ of £16.5k

If u compound 9k at 8 % for 9 years that would equal ‘a pension’ of £19.8k

As Buffett once said: “The rich invest for income, the poor invest for capital gains“.  As such, investors may be better off following his lead and letting compounding work its magic.

Instead of buying an annuity, I forgot to mention u keep all your capital.

The dividend hero investment trusts yielding more than 5%

 Writer, Laith Khalaf
 Thursday, March 14, 2024

AJ Bell

It’s not just cash savers and bond investors who are enjoying income yields above the rate of inflation, so are those buying investment trusts with exceptionally long records of increasing dividends.

Five UK Equity Income trusts are currently yielding above 5%, together providing an average yield of 5.8%. That compares to the best variable Cash ISA yielding 5.11% and the best fixed term cash ISA yielding 5.25%, according to Moneyfacts.

Of course, unlike cash, capital and income is not guaranteed when holding shares. However these trusts have increased their dividend each year for at least 23 years, through the dotcom crash, the global financial crisis, and the Covid pandemic. City of London investment trust has an unbroken dividend record stretching back to 1966, the year in which England won the football World Cup and number one records in the UK included songs from the Beatles, the Kinks and Elvis Presley.

There’s no guarantee of a rising income going forward, but the resilience shown by these dividend heroes over such a long time should provide investors with some comfort. Investment trusts can hold back income in the bad years to pay out dividends in the good years, a mechanism which has allowed some to continually raise their dividends for decades. This doesn’t increase the overall dividend yield produced by the underlying portfolio of shares, but it does offer investors a smoother ride, something which is especially prized by those relying on their investment portfolio to deliver a retirement income.

	Yield	5-year annual dividend growth	Discount	Years of dividend increase
City of London	5.1%	2.6%	(2.1%)	57
JP Morgan Claverhouse	5.2%	4.6%	(5.4%)	51
Merchants Trust	5.2%	2.2%	(1.2%)	41
Schroder Income Growth	5.2%	3.2%	(10.8%)	28
Abrdn Equity Income	8.4%	3.5%	(8.3%)	23
Average	5.8%	3.2%	(5.5%)	40

Source: Association of Investment Companies, data as at 8 March 2024

An 8% yield tomorrow from investing today

Based on the historic dividend growth achieved by these trusts, after 10 years they could be yielding 8% a year on an investment made today (based on a 5.8% current yield rising by 3.2% per annum). This also makes them an attractive segue for investors approaching retirement and looking to beef up their future income. Until the income taps are turned on investors can reinvest dividends, further bolstering their eventual income when they come to draw on it.

These are of course not the only investment trusts available to investors, and others may offer a more appealing combination of income and growth prospects to some investors. However, these trusts do showcase the high income stream that can be generated by investing in UK stocks, alongside the prospects for a growing income stream too.

The prospect for both dividend and capital growth are key attractions provided by the stock market to income investors. This is in marked contrast to cash where over time the interest generated is dictated by interest rate changes in both directions, and where there is no long run upward trend that can be relied on.

In the near term it looks like cash rates are likely to fall, with the market pricing in three interest rate cuts from the Bank of England this year. Further falls are then anticipated until the base rate reaches a stable level of around 3.25% in two years’ time (source: OBR). So while headline cash rates look appealing right now, those who are saving money for the longer term face a declining return picture in coming years.

The ISA protection for income stocks

As the tax burden rises as a result of frozen income tax thresholds, so does the value of holding income-producing assets in an ISA. The dividend allowance is being cut to £500 from 6 April, and 2.7 million people are forecast by the OBR to be brought into paying higher rate tax over the next five years, with a further 600,000 more taxpayers tipped into the additional rate tax bracket.

The chancellor’s recent National Insurance cuts don’t alter this picture, and nor do they reduce the tax payable on dividends. A higher rate taxpayer investing £20,000 in a portfolio paying 5.8% with dividend growth of 3.2% per annum would save £2,842 over 10 years by using an ISA. A higher rate taxpaying couple using their ISA allowance at the end of this tax year and the beginning of next, so £80,000 in total, would save £14,744.

Dividend tax saving by using an ISA after 10 years
Taxpayer	£20,000 single ISA contribution	£80,000 couple’s ISA contribution across two tax years
Basic rate	£737	£3,822
Higher rate	£2,842	£14,744
Additional rate	£3,314	£17,190

Source: AJ Bell, based on 5.8% portfolio yield with 3.2% annual dividend growth

Funds on the Watch List this week include: SMT, SEIT, GRID, GSEO, DGI9, TENT, FGT, FCIT, AAIF, MUT, ATST, SONG Welcome to this week’s Watch List where you’ll find golden nuggets on trust discounts, dividends, tips and lots more…

By Frank Buhagiar 11 Mar

Min Read BARGAIN BASEMENT Discount Watch: 25 Our estimate of the number of investment companies whose discounts hit 12-month highs (or lows depending on how you look at them) over the course of the week ended Friday 08 March 2024 – five more than the previous week’s 20. 11 of the 25 were on the list last week:

Aquila Energy Efficiency (AEET) and Downing Renewables & Infrastructure (DORE) from renewable energy infrastructure;

LMS Capital (LMS) from private equity;

BlackRock Sustainable American Income (BRSA) from North America equity income;

Jupiter Green (JGC) from environmental;

Pacific Assets (PAC) from Asia Pacific;

Templeton Emerging Markets (TEM) from emerging markets;

City of London (CTY) and Shires Income (SHRS) from UK equity income;

Schroder European Real Estate (SERE) from property; and Hipgnosis Songs (SONG) from music royalties.

That leaves 14 new names: Schroder Income Growth (SCF), Merchants (MRCH), abrdn Equity Income (AEI) and Murray Income (MUT) from UK equity income; Global Opportunities Trust (GOT) from flexible;

BH Macro (BHMG) from hedge funds;

Utilico Emerging Markets (UEM) from emerging markets; BlackRock Throgmorton (THRG) and Montanaro UK Smallers (MTU) from UK smaller cos.; Asian Energy Impact (AEIT) from renewable energy infrastructure;

BlackRock World Mining (BRWM) and CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (CYN) from natural resources & commodities; and Ceiba Investments (CBA) and Regional REIT (RGL) from property.

ON THE MOVE Monthly Mover Watch: Finally… A good week for Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9) – the share price stormed to the summit of Winterflood’s list of top-five monthly movers in the investment company space. Shares in the digital infrastructure investor are up 28.2% on the month on the back of the company’s 6 March announcement that “all closing conditions related to the Verne Transaction (the sale of the Verne Global asset) have now been satisfied…Closing of the Verne Transaction is now expected to take place before the end of Q1 2024.” Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID) held on to second spot after extending its monthly gain to 25.7% compared to +22.3% seven days earlier. Shares in the renewable energy infrastructure fund still benefiting from a series of director purchases and buybacks over the last month or so. In third, VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities (GSEO) courtesy of a 21% gain on the month. GSEO, another renewbie benefiting from share buybacks and director purchases – a whiff of a theme here. Yet another renewable in fourth, last-week’s top performer SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT) – that 5 February update confirming the renewal of a long-term energy supply contract, in line cashflows and receipt of “a number of credible proposals” that could lead to the sale of some of the company’s assets still working its magic. That makes it one infrastructure fund and three renewables infrastructure companies in the top-four. Question is, could infrastructure names make it a full house? Step up Triple Point Energy Transition (TENT) to complete the clean sweep. Shares up 17.9% after the company published “a shareholder circular… regarding the proposed managed wind-down of the Company.”

Scottish Mortgage Watch: -0.3% How much Scottish Mortgage’s (SMT) share price is down on the month – some way off last week’s +5.9% monthly gain. NAV lost ground too – a +6.4% gain on the month shrunk to +2.8%. The wider global IT sector meanwhile finished the week up +2.8% compared to +4.8% seven days earlier.

CORPORATE BOX Insider Watch: 25,000 The number of Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) shares acquired by fund manager Nick Train. According to the Company’s 5 March press release: “…Nick Train purchased 25,000 Ordinary Shares of £0.25 each in the Company (‘Ordinary Shares’) at an average price of 861.50 pence per share. As a result of the transaction, Mr Train now holds interests in a total of 5,362,243 Ordinary Shares, representing an aggregate 2.8% of the Company’s issued share capital.”

Fee Watch #1: 0.49% The ongoing charges ratio at F&C Investment Trust (FCIT): “Our Ongoing Charges figure declined to 0.49%, down from 0.54% in 2022. Management fees declined by 9.5%, reflecting the benefits of firstly our revised fee arrangement with Columbia Threadneedle Investments (0.3% on our market capitalisation up to £4 billion and at 0.25% thereafter), secondly a lower level of equity assets managed by third party managers and thirdly a lower fee arrangement with JPMorgan, our newly appointed US large cap growth manager.” (F&C Investment Trust Annual Report.)

Fee Watch #2: 17% The estimated reduction in abrdn Asian Income’s (AAIF) overall ongoing charges for 2024. As the Company’s press release of 05 March 2024 states: “The Company’s Board of Directors is delighted to announce…a reduction of the management fee the Company pays to abrdn…The new fee structure will be determined by the lower of the Company’s market capitalisation or net asset value, a change aimed at better aligning the fee with shareholders’ interests. The fee will be calculated monthly at a rate of 0.75% per annum on market capitalisation (or net assets, whichever is lower) up to £300 million, and 0.60% for amounts exceeding this threshold. This adjustment is anticipated to decrease the Company’s overall ongoing charges for the financial year ending December 31, 2024, by approximately 17% compared to the previous year.” Investment Manager Buy Watch: abrdn Asian Income (AAIF) Also announced on 05 March 2023 that “…abrdn has initiated its reinvestment of management fees program by subscribing to 190,000 shares of the Company as of today’s date, equivalent to approximately three months’ worth of management fees.” Chairman Ian Cadby had this to say: “We…commend our manager for demonstrating its support for the Company through the reinvestment of management fees program, reaffirming its commitment to reinvest a portion of the fees back into the Company.”

Dividend Watch: 4.5% Murray Income’s (MUT) year-end yield: “The dividend for the year ended 30 June 2023 was increased by 4.2% to 37.5p per share, giving a year-end historic yield for the Company of 4.5%.” As for the current year, “…the first three dividend payments for the year ended 30 June 2024 are 9.5p per share (previously 8.25p per share)…the fourth interim dividend will be lower than that for last year but it is anticipated to be not less than 9.5p per share, giving an expected total for the year of a minimum of 38.0p per share.” (Murray Income Half-year Report). 57 – the number of consecutive years Alliance Trust (ATST) has upped its payout: “The Board declared a fourth interim dividend of 6.34p on 20 February 2024. As a result, the dividend for the full year increased by 5.0% from the prior year to 25.2p per share (2023: 24.0p). This year’s dividend increase marks the 57th consecutive annual increase, a track record which is one of the longest in the investment trust industry, and one the Board is confident can be extended well into the future.” (Alliance Trust Final Results). 53 – how many years in a row F&C Investment Trust (FCIT) will have increased its dividend: “Subject to approval at the…AGM…shareholders will receive a final dividend of 4.5 pence per share…bringing the total dividend for 2023 to 14.7 pence: an increase of 8.9% over that of 2022. The increase compares to the 4.0% rate of inflation and means that the growth in our total dividend has exceeded the UK inflation rate over three, five and ten years. Indeed, the growth in our dividends over the past decade, at 63.3%, is almost double that of UK inflation over the equivalent period. Furthermore, as well as being our fifty-third consecutive rise in annual dividends, our full year 2023 dividend is our one hundred and fifty-sixth annual dividend payment.” (F&C Investment Trust Annual Report).

MEDIA CITY Tip Watch #1: Hold on tight to this music rights fund despite downbeat developments That’s the title of a piece on Hipgnosis Songs (SONG) by The Telegraph’s Questor Column. Brave move writing about SONG these days. Why brave? Because not a day (ok maybe a week) goes by without the music royalty investor providing an update on the fallout with its investment manager, the valuation of its portfolio or litigation worries. With developments moving so fast, articles can quickly become out of date. Hence Questor’s brave move to put the proverbial head above the parapet and pen a piece on the fund. The trigger for the article? SONG’s announcement that it would be cutting the value of its 65,000-song portfolio by 26% following the completion of an independent valuation. And once currency moves and borrowings are taken into account, NAV per share for sterling investors is down an even bigger 35% to 92.08p. If that wasn’t enough, the company’s $674m borrowings exceed the 30% of assets limit stipulated in its lending agreement. That means SONG won’t be paying out any dividends to shareholders anytime soon, as paying down debt is being prioritised. Not the best of news then. But there are crumbs of comfort to cling to. As Questor writes: “Investors may despair at developments but can take some reassurance that the valuation is now much more robust.” The Column also takes comfort from the fact that even after the one-third valuation drop, the shares are still trading at a sizeable 30%+ discount to the new NAV. Furthermore, Chairman Robert Naylor recently joined SONG fresh from selling peer Round Hill Music Royalty at an 11pc discount to net assets. Enough there then for Questor to advise investors “…to hold on in the belief, expressed by 5pc activist shareholder AVI, that a ‘bright future’ awaits the company.”

Tip Watch #2: Is Scottish Mortgage the next big success story? Asks MoneyWeek. The above titled-article kicks off with a brief recap of SMT’s share price performance in recent years. Volatile springs to mind, just like the high growth stocks the fund invests in – think Nvidia, Telsa and Moderna. How volatile? In the two years to 2021, SMT’s shares tripled to £15 a pop before plunging to £6 in the space of 18 months. The shares have since rallied to the £8 level. Question is, where do the shares go from here? MoneyWeek enlists the help of Winterflood. The broker included SMT among its tips for 2024 – a not-so subtle hint as to where they think the shares will be going. The article quotes Winterflood’s Shavar Halberstadt: “The managers have displayed a sensible focus on a range of structural growth trends…Moreover, the private-equity allocation has been used to good effect in gaining access to positions that competing funds simply cannot offer…” – think private companies such as Space X. And MoneyWeek makes the point that, despite SMT’s rollercoaster share price ride, the majority of the fund’s portfolio companies haven’t stood still over the last two years in terms of either growing revenues or making progress towards commercialisation. All of which leads, MoneyWeek to conclude that “Investors’ sentiment may have gone from starry-eyed optimism to extreme scepticism, but none of the major holdings are short of capital. Their growing success should prove highly profitable for SMT’s shareholders.” Funds mentioned in this article:

Another bumper month for the Doceo investment trust portfolios
The last four weeks have seen more gains for the three portfolios of listed funds. The biggest gains were seen, not unsurprisingly, in the growth portfolio.

By
David Stevenson
12 Mar, 2024

Later on last year (and January this year) I mapped out three investment trust portfolios for Doceo readers: an income portfolio targeting a yield of above 4%, a growth portfolio and a balanced, cautious portfolio (released mid-January). Last month I reported that two of the three portfolios had recorded solid gains but that the balanced portfolio was lagging– at that point (in mid-February) it had notched up a small loss of -1.9%. One month on that portfolio has recovered its mojo and is now up 0.9%. Given the strong state of US and global markets, you won’t be surprised to learn that the Growth portfolio has surged ahead – through to mid-February it was up 9% in price return terms, whereas it’s now up 13.37%. Last but by no means least the income portfolio is now up just a tad under 6% in price return terms since launch in mid-November – against a return of 5.14% at the mid-February mark.

Asset Class Fund % Initial Price Current Price Change

Equities 50%
MYI Murray International 20% 2.44 2.475 1.4
AGT AVI Global 20% 2.18 2.295 5.3
EGL Ecofin Global Utilities 5% 1.67 1.5575 -6.7
CCJI CC Japan Income Growth 5% 1.78 2.045 14.9

Alternatives and Bonds 50%
RICA Ruffer Investment Company 30% 2.65 2.63 -0.8
BIPS Invesco Bond Income 10% 1.71 1.72 0.6
BBGI BBGI Global Infrastructure 5% 134 127 -5.2
TRIG The Renewables Infrastructure Group 5% 112.6 103.5 -8.1

Some funds within these three portfolios have had an especially strong few weeks. Over in the growth portfolio for instance private equity fund HgCapital has surged by just under 10% in the last month. As I write this note, HgCapital Trust has just released its annual results and a note by analysts at Numis sums up the progress this trust has made nicely: “The NAV of 500.5p at December 2023, (0.4% above the company’s initial estimate) represents a 11.1% NAV total return which demonstrates a consistency of returns that we expect to continue, driven by the portfolio of companies with high levels of recurring revenues and attractive margins (30%). The last twelve months’ revenue and earnings growth were 25% and 30%, respectively. Over the long-term, earnings growth is the key driver of value creation.”

Exposure Ticker Fund % of model portfolio Initial Price Current Price Change %

Global equities ATST Alliance Trust 50% 10.76 11.99 11.43
Private equity: mid and late stage HGT Hg Capital 7.5% 4.07 4.59 12.78
PIN Pantheon International 7.5% 2.96 3.18 7.43
Private equity: early stage GRW Molten Ventures 7.5% 2.43 2.44 0.41
CHRY Chrysalis Investments 7.5% 0.7 0.875 25.00
Sector themes: healthcare BIOG Biotech Growth Trust 10% 8.25 9.8 18.79
Sector themes: technology ATT Allianz Technology Trust 10% 2.89 3.57 23.53
Alliance Trust has also surged ahead in the last month with its share price up just over 9%. A note from analysts at Investec sums up this global equity trust’s strong performance to date: “2023 was a vintage year for Alliance, with impressive absolute returns materially ahead of benchmark and open and closed-end global peer group averages. We highlight that Alliance is now ranked in the top quartile in this extended peer group over one, three and five years. We believe that growing recognition of this performance record, combined with effective discount management has resulted in Alliance continuing to trade within a narrow discount range, an experience that contrasts starkly with the wider closed-end industry which has endured a significant de-rating and elevated and damaging discount volatility. Looking forward, the manager notes that when free money ends, the strength of companies matter, while macro risks remain high and equity markets are not cheap; while this environment will inevitably bring challenges, we believe Alliance Trust is well-positioned to continue to outperform.” I’d also highlight tentative signs of a bounce back in the share price of listed venture capital fund Molten Ventures. The shares advanced a little over 8% in the last four weeks, not off any particular news or developments. Sentiment to this large listed VC has been dreadful in the last year, with few obvious buyers and lots of annoyed sellers. But the valuation discount looks a tad extreme and maybe this is a sign that sentiment is at long last improving. Over in the income portfolio, I’d highlight JPMorgan Global Growth and Income’s latest six- month numbers which showed NAV up 9.2% on a total return basis in Sterling, outperforming the 7.0% return from the MSCI AC World Index. Numis analysts noted that the “outperformance was particularly impressive in 2023 given market performance was driven by a small number of US tech stocks, and the approach (of the JPMorgan fund) seeks to combine ideas in both “growth” and “value” styles”.

Fund Ticker Allocation Initial Price Current Price Gain

JPMorgan Global Growth and Income JGGI 20% 4.88 5.49 12.50
Murray International MYI 20% 2.37 2.475 4.43
North America Income NAIT 10% 2.64 2.845 7.77
ECOFIN EGL 10% 1.52 1.55 1.97
Invesco Bond Income Plus BIPS 10% 1.62 1.72 6.17
BioPharma Credit BPCR 10% 0.828 0.889 7.37
HICL HICL 10% 1.3 1.27 -2.31
TwentyFour Income TFIF 10% 1.01 1.06 4.95

I’ll finish by highlighting the only real disappointment of the last four weeks, in the income portfolio – BioPharma Credit which has slipped by 4.4% over the last four weeks in share price terms. The discount had narrowed down to close to 5% but is now back out at 7.6%. To be fair, the shares have advanced by 7% since we launched the income portfolio in mid- November, so this is probably – I would guess – more driven by profit-taking amongst some institutional shareholders who’d bought the shares when they were on a much bigger discount. There’s been no particular news flow about the lending fund although I would suggest that many investors are now focused on what the fund will do with its huge mountain of cash following some recent repayments. News on deployment – new loans – will be especially important for the share price moving forward.