The Schiehallion Fund, the Baillie Gifford-managed investment company that backs later-stage private businesses, has reported a 29.1% rise in net asset value (NAV) for the six months to 31 July 2026, after two of its largest holdings, SpaceX and Bending Spoons, completed stock market listings.
NAV per share rose to 228.89 cents from 177.28 cents at 31 January, and shareholders’ funds increased to US$2.35 billion from US$1.80 billion. The share price return was lower, at 10.1%, and the shares ended the period at a 14.4% discount to NAV, having started it at a small premium of 0.4%.
Bending Spoons, the Italian digital product acquirer, was the biggest contributor to performance, adding 9.6 percentage points to the fund’s return. It listed on the Nasdaq at a valuation of US$18.5 billion. Schiehallion was among its first institutional investors in early 2023, at a valuation of about US$1 billion.
SpaceX added 6.2 percentage points. The fund described the SpaceX flotation as the largest in history, raising about US$85.7 billion at an implied valuation of US$1.77 trillion. SpaceX was Schiehallion’s first investment, made in 2019 at a valuation of US$33 billion, which subsequently increased more than 53-fold. A third holding, US autonomous flight company Merlin Labs, went public through a SPAC merger in March.
Other significant contributors were Portuguese autonomous drone maker Tekever and AI model developer Anthropic. The main detractors were beauty and wellness company Oddity Tech, whose shares fell sharply in February, video game company Epic Games and health technology company Tempus AI.
During the period, the fund made one new investment, in Brazilian motorcycle rental and rent-to-own company Mottu. It also made follow-on investments in holdings including Anthropic, online resale platform Vinted, US defence company Anduril, Bending Spoons, UK autonomous driving company Wayve and Oddity Tech. It sold its entire holding in cardiac diagnostics company HeartFlow and reduced its positions in Stripe, SpaceX, Bending Spoons and Wise.
The listings have changed the shape of the portfolio. The proportion held in listed investments rose from about 13% at the start of the period to around 40% by the end.
In their interim management report, Peter Singlehurst and Robert Natzler wrote: “Schiehallion fundamentally remains a private growth portfolio, and as such we will continue to take a measured approach in redeploying capital towards that end.”
The fund resumed share buybacks in June, repurchasing 650,000 shares into treasury, after issuing shares at a premium earlier in the period that raised gross proceeds of about US$28.4 million. It joined the FTSE 250 index for the first time in March.
Dr Linda Yueh, chairperson, said: “Although the Company’s shares ended the period at a discount to NAV despite the strong underlying performance, the Board believes that long-term shareholder value will continue to be driven by growth in the underlying portfolio.”
