The Results Round-Up – The Week’s Investment Trust Results
No shortage of results this week. Among those reporting, a private equity fund that would have made investors £2.2m had all ISA allowances and dividends been invested in the trust between 1999-2023; and another with a portfolio that reminds its own investment managers of Hans Christian Andersen’s Ugly Duckling story.

Frank Buhagiar

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure’s (ORIT) Busy Half
ORIT has had a busy half-year. The company acquired a large solar complex in Ireland, secured a PPA (power purchase agreement) for its Crossdykes onshore wind farm, and made a follow-on £5.9 million investment to develop its pipeline of offshore wind and sustainable fuels projects. As for the financials, NAV total return came in at +2% while the dividend target for the year was raised by 4% to 6.02p.
Liberum: “We maintain our BUY rating with a 115p TP and continue to be encouraged by the high level of earnings visibility, strong dividend cover, three-year track record of a CPI-linked uplift to the dividend, diversified portfolio, execution of the capital recycling programme and attractive discount to NAV.”
HydrogenOne Capital Growth (HGEN) on the Rise
HGEN’s share price stole the show over the half-year period, up +7.8% compared to NAV per share’s +0.6%. Progress was made at the portfolio company level too with an aggregate £76 million in revenues generated, that’s +44% year-on-year growth. What’s more, so far this year, investors have backed HGEN’s portfolio companies to the tune of €670m.
Winterflood: “NAV per share +0.6% to 103.6p (pre-announced), driven by valuation uplifts at multiple private investments and lower discount rates, with offsets from fees and FX.”
Greencoat Renewables’ (GRP) Proactive Management
GRP’s NAV per share for the half year came in at 112.1 cents, a little off H1 2023’s 113.2c. Despite this, operating cashflows funded €33 million in debt repayments as well as a €25 million share buyback. Meanwhile “proactive revenue management” has increased contracted revenues to 77% of the total for the 2024 – 2028 period, providing a high level of visibility.
Jefferies: “The results once again highlight GRP’s conservative valuation assumptions, coupled with significant capital allocation flexibility driven by the portfolio’s high level of contracted cash flow generation.”
HgCapital Trust (HGT) Tops the Charts
HGT’s +6.4% NAV total return for the half year was trumped by the +12.7% share price return. Over 10 years, share price total return now stands at +20.0% p.a. and for the third year in a row, the private equity fund tops the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) list of funds that would have made investors more than £1m had the full annual ISA allowance been invested in the same trust each year between 1999 and 2023. Together with reinvesting dividends into HGT shares, this would have generated a tax-free amount of over £2.2m as at 31 January 2024!
JPMorgan: “We see no reason to change our Overweight recommendation, with HGT the only pure play listed way to invest in leading private European profitable software and services companies”.
Pacific Horizon (PHI) Focused on the Horizon
PHI’s +4.8% NAV per share total return for the full year was a little behind the MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan Index’s +6.8%. Tables turned over five years: NAV total return stands at +96.1% compared to the index’s +17.0%. Chairman Roger Yate’s thinks there’s more to come: “There remains a wealth of opportunities for the patient investor. Based on the encouraging macroeconomic trends and stock-specific opportunities, there is every reason to be optimistic about the long‑term prospects for the portfolio.”
JPMorgan: “Shareholders have suffered from a de-rating of the shares that had been trading on a premium between mid-2020 and early 2022 reflecting its strongest period of performance. The current 10.7% discount feels fairer, and is broadly in line with most peers.”
Nippon Active Value Fund’s (NAVF) Beats the Non-Benchmark
NAVF posted a +6.9% NAV increase for the half year. The MSCI Japan Small Cap Index (sterling terms) was largely flat, which means since the fund’s 2020 launch, NAV is up +89.2% compared to the index’s +16.7% return (sterling terms with dividends reinvested). Not that NAVF has a benchmark. As Chair Rosemary Morgan explains “Our strategy does not target any index. Our focus remains on medium and small capitalised companies, where we can build up significant stakes to enable productive engagement with their management.” So, “Even if investors’ focus shifts to opportunities away from Japan, we are confident that our activist approach will continue to perform well.”
Winterflood: “Managers believe that due to the majority of the portfolio being ‘domestic-facing, with little exposure to export or currency-led industries’, they are less impacted by a stronger Yen than portfolios composed of large international businesses.”
AVI Japan Opportunity’s (AJOT) Hidden Gems
AJOT’s “unique brand of constructive engagement and high-quality research” delivered a +7.7% NAV per share total return (sterling terms) for the half year, easily trumping the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index’s -0.2% sterling return. According to Chairman Norman Crighton, there should be more to come “The lack of research coverage of small-cap companies relative to large-caps continues to present us with abundant opportunities. Foreign investors have predominantly allocated their capital into larger companies with greater liquidity rather than taking time to uncover small-cap opportunities.”
Numis: “AJOT is our preferred pick and features on our recommended list”.
Petershill Partners’ (PHIL) Clean Sweep
PHIL reported a clean sweep of growth for the half year: $146m total income (H1 2023 $138m); $128m Adjusted EBIT (H1 2023 $120m); and $94m Adjusted Profit After Tax (H1 2023 $68m). PHIL’s Ali Raissi-Dehkordy and Robert Hamilton Kelly put the strong showing down to the alternative asset management firms in which the fund invests raising $14 billion of fee-eligible assets between them. Along with the growth in fee-paying AuM (assets under management), this has translated into higher gross management fees. Rounding off the solid numbers, the fund announced a special dividend.
JPMorgan: “We think the solid H1 print is reassuring, and the special dividend will be taken positively by investors today. We are Overweight.”
Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL) on Track to Hit Dividend Target
FSFL reported a 114.9p NAV per Ordinary Share at the half-year stage, a little down on the 118.4p reported six months earlier. The difference is largely down to lower-than-budgeted generation due to poor weather and a fall in power price forecasts. Despite this, the fund remains on course to hit its 8p per share dividend target for 2024 and 1.4x dividend cover.
Investec: “The shares currently offer a dividend yield of 8.5% and we estimate a prospective steady state return of c.10%. We maintain our Buy recommendation.”
Murray Income’s (MUT) Patience Delivers
MUT’s full-year NAV per share total return came in at +9.9%, a tad behind the FTSE All Share’s +13.0%. But, as the investment managers point out, “Our investment process encompasses a patient buy and hold approach” and it’s a process that has delivered over longer timeframes – over five years, annualised NAV per share has beaten the FTSE All-Share Index by +0.2%. As for what type of companies the fund buys and holds, these are “high-quality companies with robust competitive positions and strong balance sheets, which are led by experienced management teams capable of delivering premium earnings and dividend growth.”
Winterflood: “Performance benefited from stock selection in Consumer Discretionary and Telecommunications sectors and overweight exposure to Industrials and Technology sectors. This was offset by negative stock selection in Industrials, Financials, and Consumer Staples sectors.”
Ruffer’s (RICA) Ugly Duckling
RICA posted a +1% NAV total return for the full year in line with the aim to deliver positive NAV total returns. No one-off either. 2024 sees RICA chalk up 20 years, during which the wealth preserver has generated an annualised total NAV return of +6.9%. That’s a little behind the FTSE All-Share’s +7.4%. However, as Chairman Christopher Russell points out, RICA has achieved this “equity-like return with bond-like volatility and a positive return when equity markets have suffered a significant down-draft.”
Speaking of down-drafts, the investment managers “believe investors are complacent and we have arguably never seen an equity market as crowded, narrow, and myopic as the one we see today.” No surprise then that the portfolio has been positioned defensively. So much so, it brings to mind “Hans Christian Andersen’s Ugly Duckling story. It is a portfolio filled with unloved assets – shunned, even derided by other investors. But assets whose worth will become starkly apparent in time – as they turn to swans.”
Winterflood: “Equity upside drove returns (+3.0%), supported by gold and precious metals exposure (+2.0%), commodities (+1.8%) and cash and short-dated bonds (+1.6%), while protection strategies (-3.2%), Yen exposure (-2.2%) and long-dated inflation-linked bonds (-0.8%) detracted.”
City of London (CTY) Delivers Across the Board
CTY’s latest year was neatly summed up by the opening paragraph of Chairman Sir Laurie Magnus’ full-year statement “City of London produced a net asset value (NAV) total return of 15.6% outperforming the FTSE All-Share Index total return of 13.0%. The City of London’s NAV total return has exceeded the FTSE All-Share Index over 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. The dividend was increased for the 58th consecutive year and fully covered by earnings per share.” Not much more to say.
Numis: “We continue to view City of London IT as a solid option for investors seeking income from UK equities
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