Strategic Review Result
Summary by AI BETAClose X
30 October 2025
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) 596/2014 AS IT FORMS PART OF UK DOMESTIC LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED
Bellevue Healthcare Trust plc
(the "Company")
Proposed Change of Investment Management Arrangements, Investment Policy and Investment Objective
Appointment of Columbia Threadneedle to pursue a proven, highly differentiated
long/short equity strategy
Company to be renamed CT Healthcare Trust plc
The Board of Directors of Bellevue Healthcare Trust plc (LSE: BBH) is pleased to announce that, following a thorough strategic review, it has decided that the best interests of shareholders will be served by the appointment of Columbia Threadneedle Investments ("Columbia Threadneedle") as the Company's investment manager.
Columbia Threadneedle's investment strategy for the Company will be based on its strongly performing Seligman Healthcare Strategy (the "Strategy"), which adopts long and short positions. This Strategy is designed to capture the upside of healthcare innovation and trends, whilst using short positions to hedge and to capitalise on companies facing structural as well as clinical headwinds.
The Strategy, which is diversified in its number of positions across healthcare subsectors, has delivered outstanding investment performance of +70.8% since inception, materially outperforming the Russell 3000 Health Care Index over the same period, which returned just +2.8%.
|
|
3Q25 |
YTD25 |
1-YR |
2-YR |
Since inception* |
|
Strategy Performance |
16.3% |
22.1% |
42.7% |
62.1% |
70.8% |
|
S&P Biotechnology Index |
23.1% |
3.6% |
1.2% |
24.8% |
14.6% |
|
Russell 3000 Health Care Index |
6.9% |
-4.8% |
-8.0% |
2.7% |
2.8% |
* Inception date is 1 July 2023. Performance data is as of 30 September 2025 and is cumulative total return, gross of fees, in GBP. Source: Columbia Threadneedle. Past performance is not a guide to future returns.
Benefits of appointing Columbia Threadneedle and adopting its healthcare strategy
Highly Differentiated Long/Short Approach
· The investment thesis is predicated on Columbia Threadneedle's conviction that healthcare is one of the best sectors for alpha generation as it exhibits the widest dispersion between winners and losers of any industry, amplified by exceptional volatility in clinical data, regulatory decisions, and FDA leadership shifts that can reprice companies overnight.
· A long/short strategy allows the team to capture the asymmetric upside of innovation while actively protecting capital by shorting companies facing structural or clinical headwinds.
· The team behind the Strategy has the technical ability to interpret complex scientific and medical data, giving it an edge in anticipating study readouts that can drive major upside for longs and significant downside for shorts. With over 90% of drugs and biotech programs ultimately failing, the opportunity set for well-researched short positions is robust.
· At the same time, established healthcare companies - such as med-tech leaders, hospitals, and other secular compounders - provide durable growth and recession-resistant moats, balancing the higher-risk but high reward profiles of earlier-stage biotech companies.
· This blend of innovation-driven upside, disciplined shorting, and diversification across healthcare subsectors makes a long/short approach particularly powerful.
Diverse, Disciplined and Innovative Portfolio Construction
· Columbia Threadneedle's proposed Strategy for the Company is a low net exposure, long/short equity strategy. Its investment objective is to provide absolute returns by investing in an actively managed portfolio of equities and derivatives with exposure to the global healthcare market.
· The Strategy would not be subject to any geographical limits, but Columbia Threadneedle expects predominantly to seek investment opportunities in developed economies, with a focus on North America, Europe and Asia.
· Positions would be actively managed against strict upside/downside targets, with higher-risk names sized smaller and durable compounders larger.
Leading Healthcare Manager with Outstanding Investment Trust Expertise and Infrastructure
· Columbia Threadneedle is a proven investment manager with a strong track record in the healthcare sector and a highly experienced healthcare investment team based in the US.
· The Strategy team, led by Kosta Kleyman, has a proven track record of delivering outstanding investment performance.
· Columbia Threadneedle manages a significant stable of London listed investment trusts with considerable experience and extensive sales and marketing capabilities.
· Columbia Threadneedle has also agreed to offset costs associated with the Company's change in investment management arrangements against its base management fee for up to 12 months in order to minimise the impact of these changes on the Company's net asset value.
Intention to grow with robust and regular exit opportunities
· Regular month-end share issuances will be made available for investors seeking access to the Strategy at above normal market size, and where accretive to the Company's net asset value.
· In addition to daily liquidity opportunities in the market, quarterly liquidity opportunities at NAV (less costs) will also be available to shareholders as a new discount control mechanism, with up to 15% of the Company's issued share capital eligible to be realised each quarter.
To enable Columbia Threadneedle to implement its proposed Strategy for the Company, the Board intends to update the Company's investment objective and investment policy to focus on providing absolute returns by investing in an actively managed portfolio of equities and derivatives with exposure to the global healthcare market. The Company would seek to invest in a diversified portfolio of equity or equity-linked securities, including short positions in stocks or markets that Columbia Threadneedle, as investment manager, considers to be over-valued, impaired or where desirable for the purposes of hedging and risk control.
For these purposes, the Company would define the "global healthcare market" as businesses operating in, having revenues predominantly arising from or otherwise having significant exposure to healthcare and healthcare-related sectors including, in particular, biotechnology, healthcare information technology, healthcare providers, healthcare services, life sciences, managed care providers, medical diagnostics, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals.
If Columbia Threadneedle is appointed as the Company's Manager, the Company will change its name to CT Healthcare Trust plc.
The proposed changes to the investment objective and policy and the proposed change in the Company's name will be subject to the finalisation of definitive transition documentation and regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Background
On 7 August 2025, the Board announced a strategic review to consider all options available to the Company with the objective of improving performance or otherwise achieving value for shareholders. During the strategic review, the Board received and considered multiple proposals from investment companies and investment managers, including the Company's current investment manager, Bellevue Asset Management. An orderly wind-down was also considered.
Whilst the strategic review was initiated owing to the Company's underperformance, the Board continues to believe that the healthcare sector offers a compelling opportunity for investment returns owing to its groundbreaking innovations, scale of human importance, diversity of companies and subsectors, all of which are supported by a strong intellectual property and regulatory environment.
In considering the various proposals in the strategic review, the Columbia Threadneedle proposal was particularly attractive owing to the track record and experience of the proposed investment team, the diversification in their portfolio construction and the use of short positions to mitigate risk and to create value generating opportunities.
About Columbia Threadneedle and the Seligman Healthcare Strategy
Columbia Threadneedle is the asset management arm of US-based Ameriprise Financial, Inc. As of 30 June 2025, Columbia Threadneedle oversees £503 billion in assets under management and advisement, and Ameriprise over £1.2 trillion, with offices in 17 countries.
Columbia Threadneedle's technology and healthcare capabilities are managed by Seligman Investments, which forms part of the firm's $68bn global Alternatives business.
The Seligman Healthcare Strategy was devised over three years ago and is run by Kosta Kleyman. Kosta has a professional Doctorate in Pharmacy, having led cancer drug commercialisation and clinical development for seven-years at top-tier pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as Genentech/Roche, AstraZeneca and Arcus.
Kosta is supported by a healthcare team of eight analysts, combining deep scientific training with specialised healthcare expertise. The team is organised with sub-sector specialists across biotech, pharma, med-tech, healthcare services, and treasuries, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the full healthcare landscape. This combination of technical rigour, sector specialisation and scale enhance their ability to identify inflection points, anticipate regulatory outcomes, and underwrite investments with conviction.
For more information on the Seligman Healthcare Strategy please visit www.columbiathreadneedle.com/healthcare-strategy/.
Neither the contents of the website referred to above nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the websites (or any other website) are incorporated into, or form part of, this announcement.
Dividend Policy
The Company's current investment strategy seeks to provide shareholders with both capital and income growth. The Company's proposed new investment objective seeks absolute returns and is focused on producing capital growth, though the Company would retain the ability to pay dividends from capital.
The Board intends to consult further with shareholders as to the Company's future dividend policy in the period prior to publication of the Circular to shareholders.
Future Investment Management Arrangements
If Columbia Threadneedle is appointed as investment manager, it will enter into a new investment management agreement with the Company, under which:
· the base management fee would be 0.95 per cent. of net asset value (NAV) per annum; and
· consistent with the change to an active long/short equity strategy and to ensure alignment between the Company and its investment manager, a performance fee would also be introduced, pursuant to which Columbia Threadneedle would be entitled to receive 15 per cent. of any growth in NAV in any financial year in excess of a hurdle equal to the average three-month SONIA rate during such financial year, subject to a NAV high water mark.
Discount Control and Liquidity Opportunities
The Board is conscious of investors' desire to maintain robust discount control mechanisms. It is proposed that, from the point at which Columbia Threadneedle is appointed as the investment manager, the Company's current discount control mechanisms, being the Zero Discount Policy and the annual redemption, will be replaced with quarterly liquidity opportunities for up to 15% of the Company's issued share capital, coupled with use of share buybacks, with the aim of targeting a discount of 5% or less in normal market conditions. The removal of the annual redemption offer and the implementation of the quarterly liquidity window provisions will be implemented via amendments to the Company's articles of association and will require shareholder approval.
The Company will also seek the appropriate shareholder approvals to issue shares at scale on a regular month-end basis, should such issuances be accretive to the net asset value and where there is demand which the market is unable to accommodate.
The Zero Discount Policy will remain active until at least the date of the General Meeting.
The enhanced liquidity arrangements and other discount control mechanisms seek to enable investors to deploy capital in size without relying on the liquidity of the market, whilst having the assurance of being able to realise their investment, should they need to, either in the market at less than a 5% discount or through quarterly liquidity opportunities. Further details on these improved liquidity arrangements will be set out in the Circular to shareholders alongside seeking approval for, amongst other things, the amendments to the Company's investment objective and policy, the proposed changes to the Company's name and the proposed amendments of the Company's articles of association described above.
Board Succession
Kate Bolsover, the Chairman of the Company, is also the Chairman of another company managed by Columbia Threadneedle. Accordingly, if the Proposals are adopted and Columbia Threadneedle is appointed as the Company's manager, Ms Bolsover will no longer be regarded as independent of the manager. In order to ensure that both companies remain in compliance with the UK Listing Rules and the highest standards of corporate governance, Ms Bolsover will not stand for re-election at the next annual general meeting of the Company. It is proposed that Sarah MacAulay, who joined the Board in February 2025, will be appointed as the next Chairman of the Company with effect from the conclusion of the next annual general meeting (subject to her re-election as a director).
Ms MacAulay is a highly experienced investment trust non-executive director and Chairman. She is currently Chairman of Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company plc, a senior independent director at Fidelity Japan Trust PLC and a non-executive director at Baillie Gifford China Growth Trust plc. Among her previous roles, Ms MacAulay also served as the Chairman of JPMorgan Multi-Asset Growth and Income plc.
Kate Bolsover, Chairman of Bellevue Healthcare Trust, said:
"Following a thorough strategic review, in which all options for the future of the Company were considered including winding up the Company, merger opportunities with existing investment trusts and a variety of new investment strategies, we are pleased to announce our intention to appoint Columbia Threadneedle as investment manager, subject to shareholder approval, and to adopt an investment strategy closely modelled on the strongly performing Seligman Healthcare Strategy.
"We believe this will give shareholders a new, highly differentiated and diversified investment strategy which employs an innovative, proprietary long/short strategy to generate positive returns even when healthcare indices are in decline. The Columbia Threadneedle team has deep scientific, medical and technical expertise and we look forward to giving our shareholders the opportunity to benefit from their exceptional track record of generating positive absolute and relative returns."
Kosta Kleyman, the Company's proposed portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle, said:
"We believe healthcare is one of the most fertile grounds for alpha generation, with the sector constantly innovating while navigating complexity and often significant peaks of volatility. The Columbia Threadneedle healthcare strategy is designed to maximise shareholder return by exploiting these areas through a disciplined long/short approach, which looks to identify breakthrough opportunities while actively managing risk. The team has advanced scientific and clinical expertise and is uniquely positioned to interpret data, anticipate inflection points and deliver consistent, uncorrelated returns. We benefit from being based in the US, the world's largest healthcare market and also the world's largest capital market for healthcare companies. We are excited by the opportunity to bring our differentiated strategy to Bellevue Healthcare Trust shareholders."
Circular
The Proposals are subject to shareholder approval. A Circular with further details of the Proposals, including a notice convening a General Meeting and setting out full details of the proposed revised investment objective and policy and proposed amendments to the articles of association, is expected to be published later in the year.
For further information, please contact:
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Bellevue Healthcare Trust plc |
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Kate Bolsover, Chairman |
c/o Burson Buchanan +44 (0) 20 7466 5000 |
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Burson Buchanan |
+44 (0) 20 7466 5000 |
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Henry Wilson / Mark Court / Nick Croysdill / Jesse McNab |
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JP Morgan Cazenove |
+44 (0) 20 3493 8000 |
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William Simmonds / Rupert Budge |
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NSM Funds (UK) Ltd |
+44 (0) 20 3697 5770 |
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Brian Smith / Ciara McKillop |
LEI: 213800HQ3J3H9YF2UI82
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