28th Nov 2024 11:50
(Alliance News) - Foresight Group Holdings Ltd reported continued growth in its half-year results on Thursday, driven by momentum across its institutional infrastructure and retail fundraising divisions.
The London-based sustainability-focused infrastructure and private equity investment manager reiterated its target to double core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation before share-based payments over five years. In financial 2024, adjusted pretax profit was GBP34.3 million.
For the six months ended September 30, Foresight Group posted a statutory pretax profit of GBP15.8 million, up from GBP13.3 million a year earlier.
Adjusted pretax profit, which excludes non-recurring items such as acquisition-related staff expenses and fair value adjustments, fell to GBP15.2 million from GBP23.4 million in the same period last year.
Non-underlying items included costs associated with the 2022 acquisition of Infrastructure Capital Holdings Pty Ltd. These expenses for the first half of financial 2025 amounted to GBP516,000 in share-based payments and a GBP73,000 fair value loss on contingent consideration.
Revenue for the period rose 7.4% year-on-year to GBP73.2 million from GBP67.8 million, while core Ebitda pre share-based payments increased 4.8% to GBP29.0 million from GBP27.6 a year ago.
The company declared an interim dividend of 7.4 pence per share, a 9.4% rise from 6.7 pence a year earlier. Foresight Group said it remains committed to maintaining a total dividend payout ratio of 60% of adjusted profit after tax.
Assets under management climbed 2.4% to GBP12.4 billion as of September 30 from GBP12.1 billion at the end of March, supported by a EUR300 million first close for the flagship Foresight Group Energy Infrastructure Partners II fund and GBP241 million raised into higher-margin retail vehicles.
Funds under management increased by 3.4% to GBP8.7 billion as of September 30, compared to GBP8.4 billion at the end of March.
Executive Chair Bernard Fairman said: "During the first half of financial 2025 the group delivered another period of organic profit growth, driven by positive momentum across our diversified business.
"Our highly scalable strategies bring investors closer to some of the world's most exciting investment opportunities, and recent interest rate reductions should improve investor sentiment further. Against this backdrop, our flagship institutional energy transition fund, FEIP II, is making good progress towards a further close as we target a total fund size of EUR1.25 billion."
Fairman also noted that the company's retail sales team is on track for a record year in fundraising for its tax efficient retail strategies.
Shares in Foresight Group were down 2.2% at 440.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Eva Castanedo, Alliance News reporter
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