The chair of HICL Infrastructure (HICL ) pounced on the fund’s retreating shares as 2023 came to a close, swelling the value of his investment to £75,644.

According to a stock exchange filing on 28 December, Mike Bane bought 32,608 shares at 139p apiece, a 13% discount to the September net asset value (NAV) of 159.4p per share.  

He previously bought 23,500 at a 20% discount ahead of the £3.3bn investment company’s annual general meeting in July. 

Non-executive directors Frances Davies and Liz Barber added to their holdings in the week after the AGM, buying £13,400 and £19,940 worth of shares each. 

InfraRed Capital investment managers Ed Hunt and Helen Price also demonstrated their commitment to the Citywire award-winning fund, with Hunt buying £54,000 of shares in July, and Price adding £10,000 the following month, according to stock exchange filings. 

In October, the wife of HICL non-executive director Ken Reid bought a further £10,000 of shares.

The shares, which before last year traded at a premium above NAV, have – in common with other infrastructure funds – derated under pressure from surging interest rates and inflation. However, they have rallied 16% over the last three months as the cost of borrowing looks to have peaked, reducing their decline in 2023 to 10%.

The board has maintained full-year dividend guidance of 8.25p per share at a 6% yield, with contractual inflation linkage lifting cover from 1.03 times as at the end of March to 1.05 times at the end of September, interim results showed. 

HICL board’s skin in the game

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	Year appointed to board	Annual fee (£)	Value of investment (£)
Mike Bane, Chair	2018	118,000	75,644
Frank Nelson	2014	74,000	74,155
Rita Akushie	2020	73,000	56,113
Simon Holden	2016	70,500	39,824
Kenneth Reid	2016	58,500	27,215
Frances Davies	2019	58,500	56,540
Liz Barber	2022	58,500	41,510
Martin Pugh	2022	58,500	20,132

Source: Investec; RNS. As at 3 January