European software investor Hg announced on Thursday that it plans to increase its holding in HgCapital Trust Ord (HGT.L) to as much as 15 percent from about 6 percent over the medium term, saying the listed trust's share price materially undervalues its portfolio.
On the LSE, shares of HgCapital Trust were gaining 5.95 percent, changing hands at 408.95 pence.
The announcement came ahead of HgCapital Trust's Capital Markets Day in London, where Hg will outline its artificial intelligence strategy across Europe's largest private software portfolio.
Hg has deployed AI at scale since making its first investment in the technology a decade ago.
The firm now has about 150 AI Value Creation experts, including 100 AI builders at its incubator Hg Catalyst.
Since 2024, Hg has backed more than 1,600 AI projects representing about $260 million of budgeted EBITDA impact across the portfolio, a fivefold increase.
It has launched more than 100 AI products and said roughly 20 percent of portfolio companies are generating over 10 percent of new bookings from AI.
Hg said it has partnerships with AI labs and scale-ups including Anthropic, Replit, Cognition, Forethought, Fin and Clay.
HgT's shares fell 36 percent for the year to May 21 amid a broad sell-off in public software names, before partially recovering.
The stock was down 21 percent year-to-date as of June 2, lagging the IGV software index, which was broadly flat after a 40 percent rebound since April 10.
"AI represents a generational value creation opportunity for software. For companies which are deeply embedded in the workflows of their customers, with proprietary data, distribution and domain expertise, the opportunity to compound that value through AI is as exciting as anything we have seen in the last 25 years," Hg Co-Chief Executive JB Brian said.
Co-CEO Steven Batchelor said that HG partners and staff already have more than 600 million pounds invested alongside clients in HgT and funds, with another 800 million pounds committed to new funds.
"My partners and I are excited to have an opportunity to further increase our exposure via on-market purchases of HgT shares at this deep discount", he added.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.