Investment Company 2022 Review: Existing Companies Raise £5.2 Billion in A Difficult year

Despite difficult market conditions during 2022, investment companies have raised £5.2 billion, according to data from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).

Almost the entire amount was raised by existing investment companies (known as secondary fundraising). It is just under half the amount raised in secondary fundraising last year (£10.8 billion), which was a record year both for secondary fundraising and total fundraising (including IPOs).

Conviction Life Sciences announced plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in November and this is now expected to complete at the end of January 2023. This means that there have been no investment company IPOs on the London Stock Exchange this year. The one new launch was SuperSeed Capital on the Aquis Exchange, which raised £1.96 million in January.

The secondary fundraising was led by investment companies in the Renewable Energy Infrastructure sector which raised £1.51 billion. This was followed by the Infrastructure and Flexible Investment sectors, which raised totals of £854 million and £848 million respectively.

Industry assets stood at £268.5 billion at 9 December 2022, down from £277.2 billion at 31 December 2021. The record level of assets in investment companies was £277.6 billion at the end of November 2021.

Mergers and manager changes

Four investment company mergers have been completed in 2022, with a fifth expected to be completed by the end of the year. These include the merger of Scottish Investment Trustwith JPMorgan Global Growth & Income.

Two investment companies changed their manager, with Global Opportunities Trust becoming self-managed and Rights & Issues appointing Jupiter following the retirement of its long-serving manager Simon Knott, who had managed the portfolio since 1984.

Four investment companies wound up in 2022, including Fundsmith Emerging Equities.

Fee changes

Investment company boards were active in negotiating fee reductions on shareholders’ behalf. A total of 27 investment companies made fee changes to benefit shareholders. Eleven companies negotiated a lower base fee, four introduced tiered fees for the first time, ten reduced fees within an existing tiered structure, and three abolished performance fees².

The average investment company generated a share price total return of -16.1% between 1 January and 9 December 2022. The Commodities & Natural Resources sector performed best over this period with a 23.3% return, followed by Leasing (13.6%) and Renewable Energy Infrastructure(7.3%). The fourth best-performing sector was Global Equity Income (4.8%), which was the best-performing mainstream equity sector over the period.

Richard Stone, Chief Executive of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “2022 has been a challenging year, and the most bruising since the global financial crisis in terms of performance. However, investment companies continue to show resilience with fundraising of more than £5 billion, lower than the record levels of 2021 but comparable with many years of the past decade.

“The year has also seen a continuation of the merger trend which took off last year. Four mergers are expected to be completed by the end of 2022, the same number as in 2021. We’ve also seen four investment companies wind up, and 27 investment company boards negotiate fee changes – demonstrating that boards are prepared to do what it takes to deliver value for shareholders.

“Investment companies have reinvented themselves many times over their long history and have proved remarkably durable, providing stable dividends in difficult times. The fact that our total assets stand at £268.5 billion, only 3% down from their record high of £277.6 billion, is a sign of the continuing strength and adaptability of the sector.”

Sectors raising most in 2022

Source: theaic.co.uk (as at 09/12/22). All fundraising is secondary fundraising. Closed issues admitted to trading only. Excludes VCTs and shares reissued from treasury.

Largest amounts raised by existing investment companies (secondary fundraising)

Source: theaic.co.uk (as at 09/12/22). All fundraising is secondary fundraising. Closed issues admitted to trading only. Excludes VCTs and shares reissued from treasury.

Mergers in 2022

Source: theaic.co.uk (as at 09/12/22). * This merger is expected to be completed by the end of December.

Management group changes in 2022

Source: theaic.co.uk (as at 09/12/22). Management group changes which result from a restructure, merger or acquisition at the management group level are not included.

Liquidations in 2022

Source: theaic.co.uk (as at 09/12/22).