Crystal Amber posts £49.5m increase in net asset value

Guernsey based closed-ended activist fund Crystal Amber Fund said it had increased its net asset value (NAV) per share by almost a third in its last full-year of trading, making it one of the best performing investment trusts of 2017 in the UK.

Crystal Amber raised its NAV per share 32.9% to 204.37p over the twelve months leading to 30 June, making it the seventh best performing fund on Trustnet's 119 UK Investment Trust list.

Overall, NAV rose to £201m from the £151.5m posted for the previous year.

During the year, the group successfully exited from its Grainger, Pinewood Group and Restaurant Group investments with a combined gain of £12.7m on top of the £15.7m in profit reported from the sale of Hurricane Energy with total net gains for the year of £19.3m, including realised losses on derivatives.

A buyback programme by the company helped to limit the average discount to NAV to 5.7% for the year, lower than the average 7.7% sported by its peer group.

Premium to NAV at 30 June was 3.5% as the firm staked new positions in NCC Group and Ocado Group, as well as increasing its interest in GI Dynamics.

William Collins, chairman of the Crystal Amber, said "It has been an eventful year for global equity markets, which have faced a great deal of uncertainty in the wake of the Brexit vote and the beginnings of the Trump presidency. Despite this, the Company has achieved exceptional performance thanks to its focus on undervalued opportunities where it sees the potential to act as a catalyst for change."

As of 1040 BST, shares were flat at 185.00p.