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HgCapital Trust PLC on Friday announced that strong trading from underlying portfolio companies was a key driver of performance, as it reported a higher net asset value. The company which provides access to private equity investments of manager Hg estimated a net asset value total return per share of 4.0% for 2025. The estimated NAV per share as at December 31 was 561.9 pence, up 3.3% from 544.1p a year prior. HgCapital Trust said positive performance and exits above book value in the second half largely offset the first half decline of 0.4%. ‘Strong trading from the underlying portfolio companies was a key driver of performance over the year, contributing [plus]17% to portfolio value,’ HgCapital Trust said. It added that elevated public market volatility saw multiples used to value its portfolio companies contract, detracting from portfolio valuations by 7% over the reporting period. ‘Public market volatility has increased sharply through January and into February 2026, especially in the software sector, sparked by investor concerns about the potential impact of AI on the software industry, coupled with a pronounced rotation of capital out of software and into hardware (chips, memory and data-centre build-out),’ it noted. It added that the broad-based decline has seen its share price fall 20% in the year-to-date. ‘Given the scale of the recent dislocation between the share price and the value placed on the assets within the HgT portfolio, the board is actively considering a number [of] potential actions to address the current discount to net asset value using the full set of tools at its disposal, including share buy-backs, and following the well-established processes HgT has developed to manage such situations,’ the firm said. In a separate release, HgCapital Trust engaged Deutsche Numis to conduct a share buyback programme on its behalf. It will be carried out under the existing authorisation for repurchases of up to 15% of issued capital, being 68.6 million shares. HgCapital Trust shares rose 6.1% to 428.21 pence each on Friday morning in London. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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