1st Aug 2018 18:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Artemis Alpha Trust said Wednesday it had outperformed its benchmark in its most recent year with significant contributions from its Plus500 and N1 Singer investments.
In its financial year ended April 30, the trust recorded a net asset value total return of 11%, outperforming the 8.2% return of its FTSE All-Share Index benchmark. Artemis' share price return was 13%.
The trust's net asset value per share was 394.62 pence, up from 361.90p the year before. Artemis' total investment income was GBP3.3 million, up slightly from GBP3.2 million the year before. Its pretax profit, however, fell to GBP14.9 million from GBP26.2 million.
Artemis recently adopted a new investment objective: outperforming the FTSE All-Share Index in an "unconstrained and opportunistic" way. It has no maximum or minimum exposure levels in any sector or region although the company does have a policy of not investing more than 10% in any one asset.
The company has aimed to increase its dividend 10% year to year and will pay a 3.00p dividend per share for its most recent interim, bringing the total for the year to 4.75p per share from 4.30p the year before - an 11% rise.
However, this dividend policy has now ended.
"While the board recognises that real dividend growth (that is, dividend growth that exceeds the rate of inflation) is important to many shareholders, it felt that it was no longer appropriate to continue to target annual dividend growth at a specific rate over the long term. Therefore the company will now seek to grow dividends paid in respect of each financial year at a rate greater than inflation," said Chairman Duncan Budge.
The company has been undertaking a realisation of its unquoted investments and focusing on listed investments. Unquoted investments have dragged on the company's portfolio in its last year.
"We are cautiously optimistic about the future prospects of the company. We believe we are making good progress in the process of realising unquoted investments and recycling the capital into listed investments where we believe we are able to generate higher and more consistent returns," said Artemis Fund managers John Dodd, Kartik Kumar and Adrian Paterson.
Shares in Artemis Alpha closed down 1.1% at 342.38 pence on Wednesday.
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Artemis Alpha