RIT Capital Partners (RCP ) has made its first share buyback in over two months following the release of annual results yesterday.

No longer restricted by the close period while the annual report was prepared, RCP’s board splashed out £2.9m on 150,000 shares at £19.45.

This is a big transaction compared to the purchases of between 15,000 and 50,000 shares the company made in 15 trades in the last four months of 2022.

It may signal the board’s determination to do more to help re-rate shares that had tumbled to a 21% discount below net asset value (NAV) after last year’s disappointing slump in performance.

They added 1.7%, or 34p, to £19.98 today.

The annual report confirmed a 13.3% drop in NAV that led to a 21.5% slide in the shares as investors’ confidence in the downside protection offered by RCP’s diversified portfolio was knocked.

It led to a call from Killik’s Mick Gilligan for the board to get their ‘buying boots on’ and up buybacks which, by reducing the mismatch between demand and supply, are designed to move the share price close to NAV.  

The purchased shares will be added to those held in treasury after previous buybacks by RCP. That means the company has 839,863 repurchased shares, or 0.54%
of its total, that could be reissued when investor sentiment and demand improves.

The results saw the fund managers at J Rothschild Capital Management disclose more information about the large private equity exposure that has worried the investment trust’s holders of late and express confidence in their valuation and prospects.