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406.2682 pence in cash!
FYI
For Ordinary Shareholders that elected to receive UKI Shares, each Ordinary Share with “A” rights attached to it will receive 1 UKI Share and the opening NAV of each UKI Share will equal 406.2682 pence. For Ordinary Shareholders that elected for the Cash Option, each Ordinary Share with “B” rights attached to it will receive 406.2682 pence in cash. Cheques are expected to be despatched and electronic bank transfers made in respect of the Cash Option during the week commencing 15 November 2021. Entitlements shall be rounded down to the nearest £0.01, as the case may be.
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As part of the proposals, the holders of zero dividend preference shares in Acorn will be paid an amount in cash equal to their final capital entitlement as at 28 February 2022, on completion of the rollover and liquidation, expected to be in October/November 2021.
Bought some zeros in March 2020. Anyone any idea when the zeros get paid out? The zeros are still trading. I can't find the Ordinarys on Hargreaves Lansdown, are they still trading?
It's not the trust share price but the price of the NAV you need to look at; AIF price doesn't count. You want the NAV to increase because it's the NAV that gets divided out. Today, NAV is about 425p (-5.43% of price).
There is also the 7.5p.
Drop of 10p(2.5%) off the NAV in a week.
Hope this picks up before wind-up, I can see people jumping ship now.
It has not appeared here but they are paying a final 7.5p Divi 'representing substantially all of the estimated revenue reserves of the Company at the relevant date'
Ex-Dividend Date 30 September 2021
Record Date 1 October 2021
Payment Date 8 October 2021
They have also published further details of the proposed discontinuation.
Have put a limit order in to sell at £4.40 just in case it reaches there. My feeling is it will likely top out at more like £4.30 but who knows. Good luck all.
A few years ago I was in a similar position with Aberforth, I cashed enough for CG limits and rolled the remainder. Those remaining shares fell instantly to ~20% discount and are still ~-15%. The price of the new shares was conveniently high at rollover. The loss could be more than you CG bill.
If you roll in then there won’t be any CGT, but if you cash out and then buy in there will be I imagine (obviously not an issue if held in ISA/SIPP). As Unicorn is open ended, you would roll over at NAV and I’m not sure there would be a discount? RNS says currently around 67% commonality between AIF and Unicorn, so we already have a high amount of assets that will just roll over into Unicorn at NAV without the need for any selling in the market by AIF. By the time of the liquidation, I’d expect the commonality figure to be much higher than that. Timing wise, reading the RNS again, it says rollover/ liquidation is “expected to be in October/November 2021”.
The NAV of Unicorn will fluctuate also, if it is used for valuation then those accepting the 'rollover' may find the their new shares at an immediate discount. Taking cash and buy in later may be the preferred option.
I note some selling now as the discount has narrowed, a smaller discount could more easily be lost in a market slump.
Timing should be the date in the original prospectus, their valuation date though is something else.
Good RNS for holders. I’ll be voting for discontinuation.
Unicorn UK Income Fund looks ok to me as a roll over option.
The option “for a cash exit close to NAV” is great. Anyone have any view on what “close to NAV” means?
Latest NAV from Tuesday is 450.33p.
I imagine we have to subtract the following from the NAV:
1. Costs of the liquidation. Unicorn are to make a “cost contribution” of between £50k and £100k (the amount depends on how many of us roll over to their UK income fund), which I guess gives some idea of the scale of the costs we are talking about. But I don’t really know. Anyone have any ideas?
2. Costs of selling any assets that won’t migrate to Unicorn. Given that the NAV is calculated based on the BID price and that AIF’s positions are pretty small, surely these will be relatively low?
Assuming the NAV sticks at around 450p until the liquidation, would it be fair to assume liquidation at around 440p?
Timing wise, anyone have any idea how long it might take? The RNS doesn’t really give any meaningful clues.
Out now … thanks AIF ;)
These companies should sell stock and buy back shares …. With a 20% discount…. The only reason they choose not to is because it reduces their income.
Well it looks like the BOD have finally seen sense and are prepared to consider other more sensible options. Surely a merger or takeover by one of the other UK Smaller Companies ITs would make more sense than jumping on the ESG bandwagon, which seems to be falling apart with big tobacco companies wanting to buy health companies!
Not sure if I should buy more AIF in the hope that they are taken over by e.g. Diverse Income Trust or Hendrson Smaller cos. But that 19% discount and 6.4% yield are very juicy so I shan’t be selling just yet.
Bought in first thing this morning on the RNS. Easy to say now, but it did seem likely the SP would rise on the news. Hopefully more to come.
Surely the BoD are out of a job if the company is dissolved .. and so they should be.
The obvious route would have been to merge it with SDV but then the BOD are out of a job.... .
How much money have they wasted?
Hooray up she rises …. Obvious.
Divi declared for September with the company to be wound up is my guess.
The Directors have shot themselves in the foot .. but the 20% discount speaks for itself.
Grabbed some more this morning. Seems I'm not alone.
'After careful consideration of shareholder feedback the Board has concluded that an alternative proposal to the BMO Proposal may represent a more suitable proposition for the Company’s shareholders.'
You only needed to read this BB to see the proposal was not well received, what bubble do the directors live in to expect such a large change in the Trust for it to have been viewed in any other way.
I wonder what plan B will be, keep it as was, but with a different fund manager??
Likewise …. Vote to wind up …. But these guys have got to put out the voting papers.
LSE had the AGM booked for yesterday.
They were supposed to have published details of the changes (in July) before the discontinuation vote this month. I was told that this document would cover further details of the cost , impact on NAV etc, given the delay it makes me wonder if they are reconsidering this, especially after the failure of Liontrust to raise the funds to launch a similar Trust.
One of the main reasons for picking BMO seems to be the belief that they have a better 'distribution capability' which I assume means they would be better at selling to II's. Personally, I think that if whoever runs it, produces good returns, then investors, be them II's or RI's, will follow with their money.
If you look at the main holdings it would not have been that hard for them to have slowly rotated the portfolio to be ESG if that is what they believe the best investments are. All they have achieved so far is to just widen the discount!
It takes a hell of a long time to wind a trust down, and If the vote fails why would it ever get to 400p ?
With reduced dividends, and a lack of interest in ESP from investors, who will want to buy ? People who demand ESP spend all their money on booze and drugs.
I've made a note to consider buying back in at 300p, depending on the new dividend policy. Otherwise Acorn is off my radar.
Latest actual NAV: 430.39
Latest price: 352.00
Current discount: 18.25%
I’ll be voting to wind the trust up and return the money to investors. Whilst AIF is in the UK smaller companies category most of the top 10 holdings are not that small e.g. Primary Health Properties (PHP) £2.17 bn. BMO have arrived late to the ESG party and the boat may have already sailed. If the vote fails I shall be selling at 400.00+