News & Information

December: A belated Xmas rally as worst case Omicron fears prove unfounded The UK market ended 2021 with a flourish as the news flow over the latest Covid variant, Omicron, proved less bad than feared – more transmissible but less severe than Delta. Hence the greater restrictions introduced early in the month are unlikely to… Click to find out more

November: Omicron sell off and our take on ESG Just as the UK market was threatening to break higher, news that a new, potentially more transmissible Covid variant, Omicron, had been detected, global markets went into reverse on fears tougher restrictions would need to be implemented and the damage this might wreak on recovering, albeit… Click to find out more

October: Write the FTSE 100 off at your peril October saw global equity markets put behind them the falls in September with strong gains in all major markets. The UK was a relative laggard albeit the FTSE 100 still managed to reach its highest level since February 2020. Much has been written about the demise… Click to find out more

IFSL RC Brown UK Primary Opportunities | Fund Update | September 2021 September: Equity market jitters September, which has historically often been a difficult month, saw equity markets give up some of the gains made year to date. A combination of the persistent covid delta variant, that is causing lockdowns in many parts of the… Click to find out more

August: Dividend recovery The recent UK dividend monitor report from Link group highlighted the sharp recovery in UK dividends in Q2 2021, rising 43.8% from the previous year on an underlying basis. Of course much of the recovery came as a result of companies resuming dividends. In Q2 2020, three-quarters of companies cut or cancelled… Click to find out more

July: Sun, sea and IPO’s Investment bankers have started to drift off on holidays, allowing us some respite in what has been an exceptionally busy eighteen months for equity fund raisings. 2021 has been very much about equity raisings as companies seek capital in order to expand into the sharp global economic rebound. The IPO… Click to find out more

June: Why so much M&A activity in the UK currently? We have commented for a number of months on the growing M&A activity in the UK market. It continues to trade at a material discount to other major markets. In our view, this gap either closes or more companies will be taken private by overseas… Click to find out more

After an extended period of outperformance from growth-orientated equity strategies, only 19 UK equity funds have managed to beat their peer group both year-to-date as well as the five years prior. Read the full article on Trustnet.com

May: UK equities make further progress amidst an M&A boom The pace of equity raises remains unrelenting and we anticipate a busy summer ahead. There is a substantial pipeline of deals and our primary opportunities process is well placed to take advantage of the demand for equity raises as companies seek to expand into the… Click to find out more

April: UK market buoyancy continues as mid and small caps hit record highs In a further busy month for new investments, Helios Underwriting, Arena Events, Duke Royalty, Chrysalis Investments and Barclays were added to the portfolio.  Music Magpie and PensionBee were purchased at IPO in what has been the strongest start to the UK IPO… Click to find out more

‘The alternative investment market is an exciting way of investing in growth companies while escaping the tax man’s clutches’ writes Oliver Brown