Funds' Discount Floor Provisions Triggered

CEF TIMES: Two funds see their discount floor provisions triggered this week, while other funds draw down on loans to gear up

Jackie Beard, FCSI, 19 January, 2011 | 11:16AM
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Latest News January 13-19
BlackRock Latin America (BRLA) will not be implementing a six-monthly tender offer in March 2011. The average discount to NAV for the last six months is just 0.1% so the board believes it is not in the interests of shareholders to proceed with the offer at this time. Further endorsing this is the fact the fund currently trades at a slight premium to NAV.

Dexion Equity Alternative (DEA) has a rolling 12-month discount floor provision which has been triggered, requiring a continuation vote within the next four months. The fund is trading at a discount to NAV exceeding 18%.

Eclectic Investment Company (ECIT) has been wound up, effective January 17. Shareholders representing 72.7% of the company elected to roll their holdings over into Utilico shares (UTL), while the remainder took cash. As a result, 13.5 million new shares in Utilico have been issued and admitted to the market.

Edinburgh Partners Global Opportunities (EPG) has agreed a £5 million multi-currency revolving loan facility with Scotiabank Europe PLC. This facility has a 12-month life with interest payable at 1.2% above LIBOR at the time of drawdown. This is the first such facility to be agreed for this fund and could mean the re-introduction of gearing, which hasn’t been used here since the start of 2006.

Goldman Sachs Dynamic Opportunities (GSDE) also has a rolling 12-month discount floor provision and this has been triggered for all three share classes. This requires separate continuation votes to take place within the next four months. Given the small size of the EUR and USD share classes (gross assets are £8.7 million and £14.1 million, respectively) we believe they are vulnerable to the continuation vote not being approved. The GBP share class is much larger, at £155 million.

M&G will have just one closed-end fund left in its stable as the board of M&G Equity (MEQC) announced a proposed reconstruction and wind-up of the trust. This also means the departure of yet another split-capital trust and only a handful remain. ZDP and package unit shareholders have the option to roll over their holdings into either the closed-end M&G High Income Trust (MGHC), or one of two open-ended funds: M&G Corporate Bond (rated Superior by Morningstar and AA by OBSR) or M&G Global Dividend (rated A by OBSR). Income shareholders will receive cash under the proposals. The expected wind-up date for this trust is March 8, 2011.

Related to this proposal, M&G High Income announced a proposal for a new issue of packaged units, to cater for those shareholders in M&G Equity who opt to roll over into this company.

Standard Life Equity Income (SLET) has drawn down the remaining £2.25 million of its £15 million loan facility. The level of gearing is up to 112% from 110%.

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies (SLS) has announced the results of its recent tender offer, for which 0.8% of the company’s issued share capital were tendered. Separately, the company is also exploring the issue of convertible unsecured loan stock to replace its existing gearing facilities. The current loan facility through BNP Paribas totals £14 million.

Strathdon Investments (STV) has had approval from its shareholders to sub-divide its ordinary 5p shares into one ordinary 1p share and four deferred 1p shares. The new shares were admitted to AIM on January 13. This action was taken to raise capital in the region of £525,000, to help it pay down creditors over the next 12 months yet retain sufficient working capital to ensure it can maximise realisation value of the portfolio.

There is a change of manager at Tau Capital (TAU). Previously a joint venture between Spencer House Capital Management and Compass House Asset Management, Compass House has agreed to take over the provision of investment management services from Spencer House. Compass House is a specialist in Kazakhstan investment. Richard Horlick remains as a director of Tau Capital.

The investigation into Mark Mobius by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey has been dropped. Dr Mobius, manager of Templeton Emerging Markets (TEM) was being investigated for making a statement in October 2010 that the Turkish market could correct significantly by the year-end. His comments have not been found to be in breach of Turkish Capital Markets Law and all action has been dropped.

For CEF Director Dealings information, read Who's Snapping Up Shares in Their CEF?

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