The Strategic Growth Fund was suspended in February last year, although investors weren’t notified until the end of March. At the time, the fund manager Global Mutual Fund, said the decision was taken due to a high number of redemption requests, although market speculation suggested the underlying investments were also proving illiquid.
In an update posted on the Fund Corporation website, the Guernsey-based fund administrator, Global Mutual Fund said the Strategic Growth Fund has investment in two entities – BK One, a South African JSE listed company, and Kwanda African Growth Fund.
The two companies are Advanced Vacuum Alloys (AVA) – formerly Avalloy – and Pure Ocean Aquaculture and, while the update does not say which of the vehicles holds the entities, BK One’s website lists the two as the entirety of its investment portfolio.
According to the update, both companies are still trading but are both currently non-income generative and require continued capital investment.
Drawing a conclusion on AVA, the update said: “The business has successfully produced, shipped and invoiced its first orders following the completion of the business rescue process. Despite this significant achievement, the business will require further funding in mid-2014 and the board, together with the management, are working tirelessly to achieve this.”
Pure Ocean Aquaculture meanwhile, is the holding company for two underlying aquaculture projects, namely Highlands Trout (HT) and Pure Ocean East London (POEL). The two businesses both farm and sell fish.
Again, these two businesses require significant investment before they will become profitable, with POEL currently running at a loss of $35k per month and “significant investment [required] before there is a viable large scale operation”.
HT is described as reaching its “peak capital requirements in the next four-five months before potentially reaching operational breakeven.”
As reported in April, deVere Group, whose advisers used the Strategic Growth Fund for a period, said it is “currently investigating its options” in relation to the fund.
International Adviser contacted Fund Corporation for further comment and is still awaiting a reply.
