Foresight Sustainable Forestry still Winterflood’s top monthly mover in London’s investment company space – that’s five weeks in a row now. But with the 97p cash offer now a month old, which fund is best placed to challenge for top spot?

By Frank Buhagiar

The Top Five

Foresight Sustainable Forestry (FSF) still occupying number one spot on Winterflood’s list of top investment company monthly movers courtesy of a +30.7% share price gain. That’s now five weeks in a row. But with the 29 May 2024 press release announcing the 97p a share cash offer from 29.64% shareholder Averon Park now a month old, chances are the shares won’t be sitting atop of the tree next week.

Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID), may be a contender for top spot after jumping from fourth to second. Shares, which extended their gain on the month to +28.4% from +17.9%, have seen strong investor demand ever since the 5 June Tolling agreement with Octopus Energy release. The agreement promises to add more visibility to the company’s earnings. And it would appear, BlackRock has been among those investors buying GRID shares after the company announced on 28 June that the asset manager had increased its holding to 12.1% from 11.1% previously.

Downing Strategic Micro-Cap (DSM) shares retained top-five status despite seeing the share price gain on the month shrink to +14.6% from +18.2%. Rewind to 18 June 2024 and DSM announced a third special interim dividend of 17.5 pence per share, equivalent to, in aggregate, £8.0 million. Nine days later, on 27 June, and DSM shares went ex-dividend. Cue an immediate drop in the share price by an amount equivalent to the dividend due to be paid, as those who buy shares now won’t be eligible for the payout in July. Shares still up enough to keep their place among the top five but eagle-eyed readers will have noted that DSM also featured in the latest Discount Watch, after the shares hit a 52-week high discount. The dividend is yet to be paid, hence net assets have yet to be marked down.

New Star Investment (NSI) claims fourth spot thanks to a +13.8% gain on the month. News that the flexible investor is proposing to return £17 million to shareholders via a B share scheme, the trigger for a 10%+ jump in the share price.

Augmentum Fintech (AUGM) completes the top five. Shares are up +13.5% on the month. A well-received set of full-year results, which included a +5.4% NAV per share increase, good for a jump in the share price. As Chairman Neil England pointed out ‘This continued our history of increases for every reporting period since the Company’s IPO in 2018.’

Scottish Mortgage

Scottish Mortgage’s (SMT) share price finished the week ended Friday 28 June 2024 with a monthly gain of just +0.5%, compared to +2.4% the previous week. NAV fared a little better – up +0.6% but this was still down from +1.7%. The wider global investment trust sector managed to increase its monthly gain to +2.4% compared to +2.2% seven days earlier. Can’t blame SMT’s weaker performance on the Nasdaq – the tech-heavy index finished the week flat. Nor was there a lack of buybacks as SMT was regularly buying back its shares during the week too. And yet the share price tickled lower to 884p from 888p during the week.

One piece of news to catch the eye. Broker Numis commented on media reports that SpaceX, Scottish Mortgage’s largest private position (4.4%), is to sell insider shares at $112 per share, valuing the company at around $210bn. That’s an improvement on the previously reported $200bn valuation and a 14% premium to the $180bn valuation at the time of SpaceX’s 2023 tender offer. Thing is, according to Numis, ‘It is more difficult to understand any direct valuation impact because Baillie Gifford have an active approach to valuation which seeks to reflect valuation information rapidly, and therefore may already be partly reflected in the NAV. We calculate an implied valuation for SpaceX of $205bn as at 31 May, based on Scottish Mortgage’s carry value.’ That would imply only a modest increase for SMT. So, was the market a tad underwhelmed?