Dexion Absolute sterling shareholders vote for continuation

Dexion Absolute  sterling shareholders have voted by an overwhelming margin to continue the fund with 95.54% of votes cast in favour of staying invested.

The minority dollar , euro and Australian dollar shareholders voted against the proposals however, and will now go to a second vote on moving to a run-off fund.

Of the overseas denominated shares, 99.04% of the Australian dollar class opposed the proposals, followed by 80.38% of the euro class and 50.24% of the dollar class.

The trust, which has been dogged by poor investor sentiment over the last nine months, is currently trading at a 24% discount to net asset value.

A spokesman for the fund said the sterling vote, involving 76.82% of shareholders, was a ‘great result’ for the fund and a measure of support for manager Aurora.

He added that the fund was currently drawing up proposals for the overseas share classes with the most likely result a transfer into a separate run-off vehicle.              

Approximately £212 million of the total market cap is issued in foreign currency, with the AU$ dollar class the largest at £92.49 million, against £745 million in sterling.

The sterling per-share NAV has been shielded from the worst of the recent losses by currency conversion, losing 12.20% over the last year versus 22.25% for AU$ shares.

Because of the scale of the redemption, payments will be staggered rather than issued in a lump sum. Analysts have warned that investorsin the illiquid portfolio may have to wait for years to realise their investment.