FREE

Brunner Investment Trust (The) - Refinancing will meaningfully reduce cost of debt

The Brunner Investment Trust (BUT) has recently announced a refinancing of its second (and last) tranche of high-cost debt (£28m). It placed a £25m note at a record low rate of 2.84% for 30-year debt, made possible due to declining UK government bond yields as a result of recent political concerns in Italy. The remaining £14.4m costs (including accrued interest) to repay the debt will be financed by existing assets and bank debt, and will meaningfully lower BUT’s overall weighted average interest costs from 7.7% to 2.9% pa. Manager Lucy Macdonald describes this as an exciting development, as it will allow the trust to have a more efficient balance sheet and provides greater flexibility to increase the dividend in real terms. Coupled with the lower cost of debt, a potentially higher yield could lead to a narrowing in the trust’s discount. BUT has a distinguished distribution track record, growing dividends for the last 46 consecutive years.