The Schroders BSC Social Impact Trust is looking to raise £26m in a share placing, less than a year after its IPO.
In a statement to the stock exchange today (November 2), the trust said it is proposing to issue 25m new ordinary shares, at a price of 105p per share.
The board said the firm has committed all the funds raised in its December 2020 fundraise, and is now seeking to raise additional capital to invest in a pipeline of “attractive opportunities”.
The pipeline consists of £35m to £70m worth of further investments in funds currently in the portfolio, co-investments and new fund investments. The portfolio manager expects to commit the funds raised within six months.
The placing will open on November 2 and close at 2pm on November 17 and the results will be announced on November 18.
The trust listed in December 2020 raising £75m, though this fell short of its £100m target.
This came at a time when other trust launches were scrapped due to insufficient client demand, including the Liontrust ESG trust, the Tellworth British Recovery & Growth and the SDL UK Buffettology Smaller Companies trust.
Schroders' social impact trust was the first London-listed investment trust with the objective to deliver measurable positive social impact alongside long-term capital growth and income.
The trust focuses on high impact housing, debt for social enterprises and social outcomes contracts.
In the period since launch its net asset value has increased from an opening unaudited NAV of 98.32p per share to 104.3p per share as at June 30 2021, reflecting a NAV total return of 6.09 per cent over a six month period.
The trust will pay a maiden dividend of 0.57p per share, representing a dividend yield of 0.55 per cent for the period from IPO to June 30.
Last week, the trust’s portfolio managers said they continued to see strong potential for social impact investing next year.
slly.hickey@ft.com
