The City duo who orchestrated last year’s sale of Hipgnosis Songs after a bitter governance battle are raising tens of millions of pounds to target undervalued alternative asset managers listed on the London stock market.
Sky News has learnt that Christopher Mills, the veteran fund manager, and Robert Naylor, a serial company chair, are to float Achilles Investment Company in the coming days.
The pair, who have appointed Singer Capital Markets to handle the listing, plan to raise around £50m to invest in between two and five investment companies.
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City sources said on Tuesday that they wanted to help address the valuation discount which plagues many listed investment trusts and other asset managers because of concerns about corporate governance.
Since forcing the sale of Hipgnosis, the music rights group, Mr Mills and Mr Naylor have joined the board of PRS REIT, an investment trust focused on the home rental market.
According to an investor presentation seen by Sky News, the pair cite their “proven track record unlocking c.$950m of shareholder value following activism and/or board appointment of the management team in the last 18 months”.
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“There has been little activism in alternatives to date, even though some boards have been slow to sell assets to fund share buybacks,” said one insider.
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It comes after the investor Saba Capital lost seven successive votes to force through governance changes at London-listed investment trusts.
A source close to Achilles pointed out that its aim was to improve governance rather than use an activist approach to aggregate assets, as Saba had sought to do.
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Achilles could not be reached for comment.
