Shore Capital Group uses its strong and liquid balance sheet to make principal finance investments across a range of business areas, by way of both seed investment and speculative acquisition. Where appropriate, Shore Capital uses the expertise available across its range of operational divisions to provide support and advice to the companies in which it is invested.
Notable activity across principal finance includes the acquisitions of internet and technology investment company Jellyworks in 2000 and property investor Puma Brandenburg in 2009, both, at the time of acquisition, AIM listed companies.
Shore Capital’s largest current principal investment is its holding in Brandenburg Realty Limited, to which the Group also acts as investment adviser. Brandenburg Realty’s primary focus is to acquire well-located, high quality residential buildings in major German cities, with a focus on Berlin, in order to exploit the sector’s strong growth potential in Europe’s largest economy. Brandenburg Realty has to date shown consistently strong performance, and in the last financial year Shore Capital achieved an uplift in the value of its holding in, and performance fees received from, Brandenburg Realty of £2.6m. 96% of the capital originally contributed by the investors into Brandenburg Realty has now been repaid. In addition, in 2020 the Group acquired an interest in Nippon Active Value Fund plc (“NAVF”), an investment trust listed on the Specialist Fund Segment of the London Stock Exchange. NAVF targets attractive levels of capital growth for shareholders from the active management of a focused portfolio of quoted small cap Japanese equity investments. Since its IPO, NAVF has increased its net asset value by 34.9% and has significantly outperformed the market. The Group also holds a 15% interest in Rising Sun Management Limited, the investment adviser to NAVF.
The Group retains a controlling interest in Deutsche Broadband Dienste GmbH (“DBD”), a German telecoms business, via its holding in Spectrum Investments Limited. DBD, through its wholly owned subsidiary, holds 32 regional radio spectrum licences in Germany.