November, a month of fireworks, saw explosive gains from several investment companies but other London-listed funds fizzled out with big falls. Amid all the noise, there were several significant moves in share price ratings.

Best performing investment companies

November’s biggest share price risers (left) and biggest gainers in net asset value (right).

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Figures are total returns inc dividends. Funds with market capitalisation below £15m are excluded.

Peace plan propels JEMA

Volatile JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa (JEMA), the month’s biggest riser, jumped 22.6% after the US presented a 28-point peace plan for the Ukraine that was so accommodating to Russia that it raised the prospect of western sanctions being lifted against Moscow for its 2022 invasion. This would be a boost for the £104m investment trust, formerly JPMorgan Russian Securities, whose assets in the country were written down by 99% but could have their valuation restored in full if the conflict ends.

Expectation that this would eventually happen has seen the shares trade well above their depressed net asset value, currently on a 300% premium over NAV.

Last month was also good for UIL (UTL) with the £299m sister fund to Utilico Emerging Markets (UEM) up 18% on the launch of a one-month, £4m share buyback programme.

Castelnau (CGL), the special situations fund of Phoenix Asset Management Partners, rose the same amount, boosted by the release of £45m of surpluses from undertakers Dignity that enable it to repay £39m of bonds. In response, Aurora UK Alpha (ARR), another Phoenix fund that owns a stake in Castelnau, saw NAV rise 5.6% (see bottom of right-hand column.)

Plans by Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID) to start construction of its biggest project yet in Elland, West Yorkshire, re-charged shares in the battery fund by nearly 12%, while biotechnology and healthcare funds BIOG, WWH, PCGH, IBT and RTW continued to bask in improved investor sentiment with gains of 8.4% to 10.7%. They have rallied 19%-45% in the past three months.

Worst performing investment companies

November’s biggest share price fallers (left) and biggest net asset value (NAV) decliners (right).

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Figures are total returns inc dividends. Funds with market capitalisation below £15m are excluded.

Action slowdown hits 3i

3i Group’s (III) highly-rated shares sank 27% to an 18-month low after warning that Action, the discount retailer that made up nearly three quarters of its £29bn private equity portfolio, would miss its sales growth target.

It was a bad month for two beaten-up infrastructure funds heading for liquidation. HydrogenOne Capital Growth (HGEN) almost halved after trading resumed in its shares following the delayed publication of half-year results in which NAV was slashed by 54% and the company warned it had just £1.1m left with which to complete its wind-down.

Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9) dived 27% to a new low after a Macquarie fund dumped its holding in Arqiva, the UK broadcasting platform, at a price well below the valuation in DGI9’s books. 

Government proposals to change the inflation link in legacy ROC and FIT incentives to renewable energy providers alarmed the sector with NextEnergy (NESF) and Foresight (FSFL) solar funds warning that the most onerous of two options under consideration would knock 9% and 10% respectively off their net asset values. This caused their shares to slide 13%-14% with FSFL further undermined by news that it will have to pay more tax in future after talks with HMRC, knocking 3.6p off NAV per share, ahead of half-year results last week.

Crystal Amber (CRS) sank 16% after the activist fund’s founding fund manager Richard Bernstein said he would resign with the company in talks with a new fund manager to oversee the eventual sale of its last big holding in Morphic Medical.   

Fears of a bubble in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks pushed technology trusts off their highs at the end of October. Manchester & London (MNL), the £295m AI fund, saw its portfolio drop 11% with the NAVs of Herald (HRI), Polar Capital Technology (PCT) and Scottish Mortgage (SMT) retreating 4.4%-6.5%. The halt to share buybacks announced in September by MNL left the stock unsupported and it dropped 15.9%.

Share issuance and buybacks

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Figures based on the approximate value of shares at 30/9/25. Excludes investment companies with market capitalisation below £15m.

Fidelity Emerging buys out Strathclyde

Talking of buybacks, Scottish Mortgage continues to purchase large quantities of its shares, mopping up an estimated £125m last month as it seeks to narrow their 13% discount to NAV. For once, it was not the biggest buyer in town with Fidelity Emerging Markets (FEML) completing the buy-out of a £180.5m stake held by Strathclyde Pension Fund on 12 November, reducing its market value to £452m.

UK equity income stalwarts City of London (CTY) and Merchants (MRCH) joined the small band of in-demand trusts issuing new shares, putting over 6m shares each into the market. Leading the way was high-yielding debt fund TwentyFour Income (TFIF) which drew in £31.4m at its recent fund raise.

Cheaper trusts

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Negative numbers show discounts or gaps between share prices and the net asset value of the funds’ investments. The discounts on these five funds widened last month, ie got “cheaper”.

Schiehallion: a cheap trust?

Schiehallion (MNTN) looks the most intriguing prospect in our short list of listed funds that got cheaper last month. Shares in the £1.1bn Baillie Gifford private equity fund derated, with their discount almost doubling to 30%, as tech shares retreated and uncertainty over today’s shareholder to convert the Guernsey closed-end fund into a UK investment trust.

The uncertainty grew after proxy adviser ISS objected to Schiehallion’s plans to issue special voting shares to ensure US investors’ voting rights stay below 50%. The company says the move is not about undermining the principle of one-share, one-vote, but ensuring the fund does not lose its US status as a “foreign private issuer”.

Schiehallion, an investor in Tik-Tok owner ByteDance, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other unquoted tech companies, needs 75% of votes in favour of a special resolution to be admitted to the main market of the London Stock Exchange. That would enable the fund, which has until now been formally restricted to institutional investors, to be marketed to private investors where they might enjoy increased support. Therefore a win today could see the shares start to close their wide valuation gap. We await the result with interest.

More expensive trusts

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Negative numbers show discounts or gaps between share prices and the net asset value of the funds’ investments. The discounts on these five funds narrowed last month, ie got less “cheap”.

Is Castelnau a call to look at sister Aurora?

Special situations fund Castelnau (CGL) is standing on a much reduced 9% discount following the rally prompted by the release of capital from Dignity. Interestingly, while it now looks comparatively dear, sister fund Aurora UK Alpha (ARR) remains on a near-10% discount which has widened from 7% since April despite the good news from Castelnau in which it is 14% invested. That leaves the £295m deep value fund run by Gary Channon at Phoenix Asset Management on as wide a discount as sector rival Baillie Gifford UK Growth (BGUK) despite its better performance. However, both lag Fidelity Special Values (FSV) which trades on a narrow 2% discount reflecting its strong returns over one, three and five years.