F&C Trust considers wind-up, paper says

UK property investment trust, F&C Commercial Property Trust will consider proposals to wind up after its share price failed to meet a self-imposed target, the Financial Times reported, citing the chairman of he company. The paper said F&C will announce an EGM on Thursday to consider the option.
The £ 921 mln (EUR 1.47 bn) fund’s share price has been dragged down by the downturn in the commercial property sector, which many investors believe has peaked. On Thursday, F&C was trading at a discount of almost 13% on its net asset value. The F&C-managed company’s prospectus requires a share buy-back if the price to NAV remains below 5% for 20 days, and an EGM after 90 days.
The 90-day period ended Wednesday, despite the fact that the company has bought back about 7 mln shares, equivalent to almost 1 per cent of share capital, in the first half of the year, the paper said.
F&C chairman Peter Niven confirmed that the EGM circular would be published Thursday. “Our buy-back policy has not had any material effect as the market has come off the boil. We’re looking at a variety of measures to address the problem, based on an excellent underlying property portfolio, ” the paper cites him as saying.
Friends Provident controls 54 per cent of the shares, giving it the deciding role in any vote. The company was not available for comment ahead of the announcement.