Latest news with #investmenttrust
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
COPT Defense: Q2 Earnings Snapshot
COLUMBIA, Md. — COLUMBIA, Md. — COPT Defense Properties (CDP) on Monday reported a key measure of profitability in its second quarter. The real estate investment trust, based in Columbia, Maryland, said it had funds from operations of $57.7 million, or 68 cents per share, in the period. Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The investment trust row threatening your tax relief
The investment trust industry is something this nation should be proud of, offering investors exposure to a range of different assets in an easily tradable format. As listed companies with publicly traded shares, investors are never locked out of their capital, a feature not shared by the open-ended funds industry. Of course, they must pay a premium to the underlying investments if that trust is particularly desired, or sell at a discount if it's out of favour. This ability to buy and sell shares without reducing the capital available to the investment managers allows trusts to invest in less liquid assets, such as property and private equity. This limited share capital has other benefits, too. Trusts are able to utilise gearing, borrowing money to invest alongside investor capital and enhance returns (or losses). But perhaps one of the most important features of investment trusts is the independent board, a group of non-executive directors elected by shareholders to represent their interests. The appointed fund manager answers directly to the board, and in turn, the shareholders. However, shareholders are not a homogenous group. Nor are boards. This ability to dissent naturally breeds contention and herein lies the cause of another defining characteristic of the investment trust industry – the row. Over the past few months, this column has been keeping an eye on a developing situation at a comparatively small investment trust that will have important ramifications for shareholders. With an upcoming vote due on August 13 that will set the future path of this company, Questor believes shareholders should be made aware of the situation, but how investors vote is their prerogative. Shareholders should note the deadline to cast votes is likely to be earlier if they hold their shares via investment platforms. The Maven Renovar VCT, until recently the Amati Aim VCT, is in a tussle for control between the recently appointed investment manager and the previous one, with each side passionately committed to their cause. The upcoming vote will ask investors to make their choice on either firing the entire board and appointing the previous investment manager, or continuing down the current path and rejecting this reversion. Paul Jourdan, of Amati, is the previous manager leading the charge to be reinstated, and spent almost two decades running the vehicle. Over five years, as the board notes, he has underperformed, with a negative total return of -21pc, compared with the wider sector's -5pc loss. However, as his supporters point out, over 10 years, the manager is the second best performing in the VCT Aim Quoted sector. In a separate smaller company vehicle also managed by Jourdan, the manager has returned more than 900pc since 1999. The board argues that his recent underperformance is proof he's not able to do the job any more, while supporters note Aim has been in dire straits over the past few years. Since the board fired Jourdan, they have appointed their own investment manager – Maven Capital Partners – and implemented a new investment policy, which they describe as 'Aim Plus'. It is these two issues that have drawn particular attention from disgruntled shareholders. While technically there is no requirement for the board to seek approval for these changes, it would not have been amiss to call an extraordinary general meeting to ensure they were acting in the best interests of shareholders when altering two decades' of trust policy. Given this is an Aim VCT vehicle, many shareholders will be using the trust as part of their tax planning. There are extra considerations compared with other kinds of investment trusts, as some will be investing to benefit from the various tax reliefs offered by investing in Aim and VCTs. Many investors will have to sacrifice these reliefs if they sell out of the vehicle early, meaning exiting the trust if they disagree with the changes isn't entirely straightforward. 'Aim Plus' will extend the remit of the trust to invest in unquoted companies, a policy that has already clearly divided shareholders. In fact, investors have already made clear their displeasure. At the June annual general meeting, shareholders voted against the new investment policy and the re-appointment of every director, effectively firing the board. But a trust cannot be without a board, so the team have been retained until they are either reappointed in this upcoming vote, or a new board is found. While above the historic average, less than 15pc of share capital was voted at the AGM. For the interests of all shareholders, this scenario must not drag out any longer. Whether investors wish to continue with the Maven board and the Aim Plus strategy, or to revert to the Amati management and the original investment strategy is for them to decide. But on August 13 when the vote arrives, this column hopes a decisive decision from a large turnout draws this argument to a close.
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Should investors take another look at a rebounding property sector? The INVESTING ANALYST
So far in 2025, the REIT space has been characterized by a flurry of M&A activity, as buyers look for bargains in a sector languishing at discounts across the board. In this column, Alan Ray, investment trust research analyst at Kepler Partners, looks at why real estate investment trusts could offer an opportunity to shrewd investors. The last few years have been full of contradictions for the listed property sector. First, the pandemic accelerated and cemented positive trends in areas such as logistics that had been underway for several years. Share prices of REITs surged, seemingly in response. But then, in 2022, share prices came crashing down and wide discounts to net asset value became normal. Property, as an income-generating asset class that is usually geared with debt, is naturally interest-rate sensitive and those surges and declines in share prices were really determined by the interest rate cycle, which is an enduring truth that it pays to keep in mind. Behind the scenes though, it has been a very different picture. I'd point to two key trends that the pandemic accelerated. First, the re-wiring of the UK economy to embrace online commerce - requiring highly efficient and well-located logistics and industrial buildings - gathered pace, with countless anonymous square boxes humming with activity. In our daily lives this manifests itself in the extraordinarily short space of time between ordering a £2 roll of masking tape and its appearance in the 'safe space' behind the wheelie bin, but this re-wiring has also profoundly changed interactions between businesses and how supply chains work. Today, businesses are painfully aware of the fragility of 'just in time' international supply chains and are much more focused on local production and supply. And, in a much longer essay, we could also discuss the apparent reversal of globalisation that may push this trend even further. Second, the changing nature of offices and how we use them. While some of the wilder pandemic fantasies about office life have proved to be exactly that, there have been profound changes to the way many of us work even when we are in an office. Again, this trend may be accelerating post-pandemic as we grapple with the implications of AI on the nature of the work that humans do. Office buildings as an overall group have been harder to manage than industrial and logistics buildings, but there are clear positive trends for the right offices in the right locations. There are many other trends to talk about, but these two sectors respectively form over half and a quarter of the value of UK commercial property. And in fact, many retail assets these days are hard to distinguish from a logistics hub so many of the same trends apply here. But there are always going to be buildings in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I'm sure all of us can think of a 'stranded asset' - perhaps a dilapidated office with no hope of renovation or repurposing, with a 'space to let' sign outside. Encounters like that can have an outsized influence on the way we think about property. The reality for many property fund managers over the last few years has been a fight against big declines in share prices and a struggle to repay debt but in stark contrast tenants demanding more and better space, resulting in growing rental income. The right buildings in the right places have, from an income perspective, kept delivering. So, did the stock market get things wrong in 2022 and were those share price falls unjustified? Bluntly, no. The stock market called it about right and property valuations have fallen by 20 per cent or more since then. Zero interest rates had pushed property values too high, and things are back down to more sensible levels, with yields on many REITs now as high or higher than UK gilts. Falling share prices did, however, catalyse a dizzying number of mergers and acquisitions. In some cases, private equity simply bought a REIT at a discount and took it private to harvest the growing income. But very often mergers have occurred between REITs. LondonMetric (LMP), arguably the leading diversified REIT listed in the UK, has absorbed five others since 2019, building a £6bn portfolio focused on industrial and logistics, leisure and entertainment, healthcare and convenience retail. In many cases with long leases and contractual rental uplifts, giving good visibility for income growth over many years. Similarly, Tritax Big Box (BBOX) has built a £6.5bn portfolio partly through acquisitions, focused on large regional logistics hubs and smaller urban logistics assets, leading to rental growth and a rising dividend. While it's easy to dismiss such mergers as 'empire building', management teams need to get their share prices higher to get fully rewarded, so there's little point in buying another REIT unless you are confident that the assets can deliver. Picton Property Income (PCTN) provides an interesting case study of self-help over the last few years. It owns a diversified portfolio, with over 60 per cent in the key industrial and logistics sectors. To help reduce its exposure to offices, management has taken several of these through planning permission to repurpose to much higher value residential assets, with one recent example having views towards St Paul's Cathedral. This just goes to show that location can play an incredibly important role, and PCTN's selection of offices in the right locations has given it more options than would be true for our 'stranded asset' mentioned above. While REITs themselves therefore present attractive opportunities for investors, one stalwart of the investment trust sector is TR Property (TRY), which owns a broadly diversified portfolio of REITs across the UK and Europe, together with a small portfolio of physical property in the UK. Owning a portfolio of REITs rather than buildings directly allows the management team to adapt more quickly, buying or selling shares in different REITs in a day rather than the weeks or months a property transaction might take. TRY has a long history of dividend growth and might just be the right choice for the investor seeking the 'one and done' solution to commercial property in a portfolio. I'd point to one last trend worth thinking about. While 'ESG' in wider investing remains a polarising subject, in property it is much less so. Here, the main elements - energy efficiency and simply put, decent air conditioning - are tangible, measurable and cost-saving. Efficient buildings are very likely to command higher rents. Almost every property fund manager is paying attention to this, but Schroder Real Estate (SREI) has gone one step further, building sustainability goals into its investment strategy, and there is a strong correlation between higher rents and the manager's work to upgrade its buildings. So to conclude, yes, the stock market called it right in 2022, sending share prices of REITs lower. But it's easy to see why property fund managers might have been perplexed, with many of their assets performing well. With interest rates now at more normal levels, and a positive outlook for rental income in the right assets, this is a good time to take a fresh look at the UK's dynamic REIT sector.
Daily Mail
19-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
TEMPLETON EMERGING MARKETS TRUST: Teamwork helps master emerging markets
TEMIT, the country's oldest emerging markets investment trust, is in fine form. Although its manager says there are 'negatives' out there on the horizon, he sees no reason why the asset class can't deliver long-term annual returns in the high single-digits. Acronym TEMIT stands for Templeton Emerging Markets Trust, a fund launched in 1979 with Mark Mobius (aka 'Mr Emerging Markets') at the helm. Today, the £1.9 billion UK-listed fund is run by Chetan Sehgal out of Singapore and Andrew Ness, from Edinburgh. 'We're a team,' says Sehgal, in London for the trust's annual general meeting. 'Every investment idea for the trust is discussed.' The pair are supported by analysts across the globe – from China and India in Asia to Dubai in the Middle East and Argentina in South America. The performance numbers are good. When measured against similar trusts investing in emerging markets across the world, it is best in class over the past one and three years. So over the past year a 19 per cent return compares to the respective 15 and 9.9 per cent gains registered by Fidelity Emerging Markets and JPMorgan Emerging Markets. Over three years, the respective gains are 41.8, 35.4 and 14.5 per cent. Over the past five years, its 36.4 per cent return is beaten by both Utilico Emerging Markets and Mobius Investment Trust (also set up by Mark Mobius). Sehgal says the emerging markets investment story remains powerful, fuelled by the 'sustainable earnings power' of many leading companies. He also believes the improvement in corporate governance has been a positive. The trust's portfolio, comprising 87 stocks, has some corporate names among its biggest positions. They include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), its largest holding at just under 13 per cent. Also, Indian banks ICICI and HDFC. Sehgal describes TSMC as having 'tremendous' earnings growth potential while he says banking (in countries such as India and also Brazil) is a powerful 'penetration story' on the back of growing urbanisation and the need for consumers to have a bank account. Another key holding, thriving on the back of India's expanding urbanisation, is food delivery company Eternal, owner of the popular app Zomato. 'India doesn't have a convenience store network,' says Sehgal. 'So Eternal has done really well in the big cities where everyone wants something in a jiffy – whether it's flowers delivered to a loved one, a gold coin gift on a festival day or just a need for some essential groceries.' Tariffs on exports to the US remain an issue for emerging markets – as do geopolitical issues, especially between Taiwan and China. 'It's a big headwind,' says Sehgal of the ongoing tension between neighbours separated by the Taiwan Strait. 'But there is no guarantee that it will end in military conflict – the current status quo is a possible solution.' He says many Taiwanese companies, including TSMC, are also responding by setting up manufacturing operations elsewhere in the world. Although the trust invests in Chinese companies – top-ten holdings include tech giants Alibaba and Tencent – Sehgal says that it will remain underweight for the time being. The fund's stock market code is BKPG0S0 and ticker TEM. Total annual charges are reasonable at 0.96 per cent and the trust pays a dividend equivalent to an annual yield of 2.7 per cent.
Globe and Mail
09-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
UDR Announces Dates for Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Release and Conference Call
UDR, Inc. (the 'Company') (NYSE: UDR), a leading multifamily real estate investment trust, announced today that it will release its second quarter 2025 financial results on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, after the market closes. A conference call will be held on Thursday, July 31, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference call will be open to the public. During the conference call, company officers will review second quarter 2025 results, discuss recent events, and conduct a question-and-answer period. The question-and-answer period will be limited to registered financial analysts. All other participants will have listen-only capability. To participate in the webcast: Please go to UDR's website at at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time in order to register, download and install any necessary audio software. A replay will also be available on UDR's website. To participate in the live telephone conference call, please dial one of the following numbers at least five minutes prior to the start time: The full text of the earnings release and supplemental data will be available immediately following the earnings release to the wire services on July 30, 2025, at UDR's investor relations website at About UDR, Inc. UDR, Inc. (NYSE: UDR), an S&P 500 company, is a leading multifamily real estate investment trust with a demonstrated performance history of delivering superior and dependable returns by successfully managing, buying, selling, developing and redeveloping attractive real estate properties in targeted U.S. markets. As of March 31, 2025, UDR owned or had an ownership position in 60,047 apartment homes, including 300 apartment homes under development. For over 53 years, UDR has delivered long-term value to shareholders, the best standard of service to residents and the highest quality experience for associates.
