Honeycomb maintains steady NAV

HONEYCOMB Investment Trust maintained a steady net asset value (NAV) return of 0.66 per cent in August, or 7.9 per cent NAV return per share on an annualised basis.

This brings the trust’s year-to-date return to 5.10 per cent, or 30.39 per cent since inception.

Between March and August of this year, monthly NAV has been relatively stable at between 0.64 and 0.67 per cent, which the investment manager said was due to “good credit performance with low levels of impairments and write offs.”

“There has been a slight reduction in investment assets driven by the refinancing of a structured loan,” wrote the investment manager in a note to shareholders.

Read more: Honeycomb sees investment income and earnings soar in first half of 2019

“The pipeline is strong, and the investment manager expects these proceeds to be redeployed in the coming months. The increase in the debt to equity of 62.4 per cent at month end was due to the timing of closing a new debt facility. It will reduce back to ~45 per cent in the short term.”

The August returns were made while the trust was in merger discussions with fellow alternative finance-focused investment trust P2P Global Investments (P2PGI).

The deal was proposed by Pollen Street Capital, which manages both trusts, and was intended to reduce the harm caused by the trusts’ exposure to troubled fund manager Neil Woodford. However, the talks came to an end in mid-August, after objections by some key shareholders.

Woodford Investment Management still owns a 22 per cent stake in Honeycomb.

Read more: Honeycomb NAV returns to 2019 high