Funding Circle investment trust to return £22m to shareholders
Funding Circle’s investment trust is to return £22m of cash to shareholders next month as it outlines how the coronavirus is affecting its plans to close.
The SME Credit Realisation Fund, which was previously known as the Funding Circle SME Income Fund, will return the money as part of its wind-down plans.
The return includes a redemption of £18.5m and a quarterly dividend of 1.3125p, equivalent to £3.4m.
A stock market update from the fund said it intends to continue returning surplus cash to shareholders on a quarterly basis.
Read more: Funding Circle investment trust secures backing for closure
The update revealed the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak meant it needed to delay publication of its latest net asset value (NAV) performance for March.
It also said its plans to sell a portion of its assets would be delayed or may not proceed at all due to the pandemic.
Analysts at Numis predicted other investment trusts would also delay their NAV publications.
“It is positive to see cash continuing to come back to shareholders through the dividend and capital distribution, even after increasing the cash reserve for currency hedging,” a Numis analyst note said.
“However, the proceeds from these will have largely related to before the onset of coronavirus disruption and therefore the outlook is less certain.
“Reflecting this uncertainty, the publication of the March quarterly NAV will be delayed until there is greater clarity.
“The NAV is currently calculated using IFRS9, which requires a forward looking estimate of expected credit losses.
“There may be delays before the impact of current conditions are reflected in NAVs, and valuations are likely to be subjective.
“It is difficult to predict what the impact of the current environment will be on NAVs, with a key factor likely to be the degree to which promised government support is able to be accessed by small- and medium-sized enterprises.”
Read more: Funding Circle fund to return £16m to investors