Edison Investment Research

Serco Group (SRP); signs £800m 10-year contract

Serco Group has signed an £800m 10-year contract with the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to provide Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) for the South of England region. The contract will commence on 29 August 2020.

Henderson Int Income (HINT); reports NAV per share at 164.8p

Separately, the company announced its fourth interim dividend of 1.50p per ordinary share

Henderson International Income Trust announced its annual financial report for the year ended 31 August 2019. The NAV total return per ordinary share increased by 2.2% with debt at par value. Dividend for the year increased to 5.70p and gearing was 3.25% at year end. The returns compare to a total return of 8.0% for the MSCI World Index.

StatPro Group (SOG); completes of a recommended cash offer

nder the agreement, scheme shareholders will receive 230p in cash for each share

StatPro and Confluence Technologies have confirmed the recommended all cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of StatPro.

ANGLE (AGL); announces positive results from Parsortix studies

ANGLE has announced positive results from its Parsortix US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analytical studies. Headline data from these analytical studies and the successful FDA pivotal clinical study were submitted to the FDA as a “Q-Submission” ahead of a full De Novo submission seeking FDA clearance of ANGLE’s Parsortix system.

De La Rue (DLAR); posts trading update

The company announced a trading update for the period 1 April 2019 to date. It expects H1 2019/20 adjusted operating profits for the half year ended 28 September 2019 to be low-to-mid single digit millions.

Custodian REIT (CREI); reports NAV per share at 104.3p

The board reported an increase in its revolving credit facility (RCF) to £50m

Custodian REIT has reported highlights for the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019. NAV total return per share decreased 0.04% with a 1.6625p dividend approved for the period being offset by a 1.7p reduction in NAV, mainly due to property valuation decreases. Net gearing was 20.5% loan-to-value. Property value stood at £547.2m as of 30 September 2019.

KEFI Minerals (KEFI); provides an update on Tulu Kapi Gold Project

The company will announce its quarterly update on 30 October 2019.

KEFI provided an update regarding its Tulu Kapi Gold Project in Ethiopia. The company confirms the receipt by Tulu Kapi Gold Mines Share Company (TKGM) of all the government permits and independent consultant reports required for closing the project equity financing and triggering the development of the project.

John Laing Group (JLG); completes acquisition of the Ruta del Cacao project

This announcement is further to the announcement made on 20 August 2019

John Laing Group announced that they have received all relevant approvals related to the acquisition of 30% of the Ruta del Cacao road project in Colombia. The acquisition has been completed for a total consideration of £62m.

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF); outperformed its benchmark

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) outperformed its benchmark in the year ended 30 June 2019, with an NAV decline of 1.9% in USD (its accounting currency) and an increase of 1.8% in GBP, versus a slide of 2.6% in the VN Index (in USD terms). This represented a slight pause after three years of double-digit total returns. The share price rose by 0.9% in USD and 4.6% in GBP (all figures are on a total return basis).

Palace Capital (PCA); Significant news ahead of interims

Ahead of interim results that will be published on 19 November, Palace Capital has provided details of some significant lease renewals and rent reviews. It has completed 12 lease renewals and five rent reviews at an average c 26% above the previous rent levels and 3% above the estimated rental value (ERV). This adds more than £0.4m per annum to passing rent and increases the weighted average unexpired lease term to first break (to 5.2 years).