The analysts at broker Stifel made a good point this week about the differential in discount rates that's opened up between alternative assets trusts and plain vanilla equity ones. Whereas until two years ago the ratings on alternatives were generally superior, and often traded at premiums, while equity trusts were less handsomely rated, the reverse is now the case. Has this switchback gone too far?
Discount opportunities continued The story of the past 18 months is neatly captured in the chart that Stifel uses and which I could have readily replicated from other sources. You can see that di...
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I have updated the list of large and liquid trusts that I think look to have good risk/reward potential on the basis of their current discounts and added a comment about this week's interesting announcement from the board of Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG), one of the 15 names. If as appears likely we are close to the current peak in the interest rate cycle, you would expect to see that reflected in an end to the persistent derating which has characterised the sector since early last year.
Discount opportunities continued So the kick to Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG) from the Round Hill Music deal ...
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Round Hill Music Royalty Fund is the smaller and newer of the two music royalty funds although its investment adviser, Round Hill Music, has been around since 2010. The two music trusts (Round Hill and Hipgnosis) look similar in many ways but Round Hill's catalogue of songs is older and more skewed towards rock music, it has a slightly lower level of gearing and it has been much less acquisitive. Round Hill joined the market in late 2020 and is targeting a long-term annualised return of between 9 and 11% including an initial dividend yield of 4.5%. The continuing rise of free and ad-supported ...
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Jonathan Davis Stuart Watson's fund profile this weekend looks in depth at the European Opportunities investment trust, managed by Alex Darwall, a high profile manager who left Jupiter Asset Management, where he managed the trust previously, to form his own independent investment company in 2019. When a well publicised accounting scandal at the German company Wirecard knocked holes in the value of his largest holding last year, the trust got off to a sticky start - but is it now on the way back? The Q and A this week is with Helen Steers, lead manager of the Pantheon International private equi...
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