Page 41 - DIY Investor Magazine | Issue 41

In terms of trading, I sold a little of my taxable RIT position and reinvested in Bluefield Solar, Gresham House Energy Storage, and Henderson Smaller. I also topped up in HICL Infrastructure now it reckons it can finally start increasing its dividend again.
GLOBAL
Not much new to say about Fundsmith, Lindsell Train Global, VWRL, or JGGI — the latter continues to perform very strongly and recently announced a 24% hike in its dividend as its payout is pegged to its end of June NAV per share.
‘THIS TRUST HAS RIT has seen its discount widen again although there have been reports of the new management
LAGGED ITS SMALL team becoming a little more transparent although I don’t think there has been anything that retail
AND MID-CAP investors can access — something that clearly needs to be addressed.
BENCHMARK AGAIN SO FAR IN 2024’ Smithson comfortably passed its continuation vote and the Chairman was re-elected, which was somewhat of a surprise
I thought. This trust has lagged its small and mid-cap benchmark again so far in 2024.
Keystone’s performance has also disappointed this year; it held up a little better than other Baillie Gifford trusts a couple of years ago, but hasn’t recovered to the same extent in recent months. I suspect the two are linked. Saba, the activist investor, has continued to add to its Keystone position.
And since starting to buy back its shares in November 2023, Keystone has repurchased around 2m of 62m shares — a reasonable pace for a trust of its size but yet to narrow the discount much.
RENEWABLES AND INFRASTRUCTURE
HICL’s cash flows have now increased to the point where it feels comfortable targeting a modest dividend increase for the year ending March 2026. That’s still a little way off but highlights the visibility it has over its future cash flows. HICL has made good progress on selective disposals and reducing the balance outstanding on debt facilities.
Bluefield Solar has had a quiet quarter. I’m waiting for news on GLIL buying a 50% stake in 100MW of its assets, a deal flagged several months ago as part of a wider agreement.
‘I LIKE THIS In my last review, I said I was dithering about Gresham House Energy Storage and waiting for its latest DEAL A LOT’ results before deciding on a course of action. In the end, I decided its problems seemed to be more than in the share price and increased my position size by 50% (although it’s still a fairly small holding relative to most others I have).
The share price recovered a fair bit on the back of slightly better revenues and a tolling agreement with Octopus that has essentially sold income from half its portfolio at a fixed price for the next two years. I like this deal a lot as it seems to have secured a decent level of base revenues, but not tied in GRID for too long, while still allowing for some upside if prices recover quicker than expected. It increases the likelihood of dividends resuming next year, too.
41 DIY Investor Magazine
· August 2024
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