9th Mar 2020 09:12
(Alliance News) - HgCapital Trust PLC on Monday reported strong net asset growth over 2019, outperforming its benchmark.
At December 31, the tech investment company's NAV per share stood at GBP2.55 each, up 21% from the GBP2.16 seen at the same point the year prior.
HgCapital's net assets rose 25% over 2019 to GBP1.04 billion from GBP805 million.
The investment firm proposed a final dividend of 3 pence per share, taking its full year dividend to 4.8p.
As a result, HgCapital's NAV total return for 2019 was 20.8%, outperforming its benchmark - the FTSE All-Share- which gained 19.2% in the same period.
Chair Roger Mountford said: "2019 not only saw excellent results but was a transformational year for HGT. I remain confident that, thanks to the skill and resources of Hg, the outstanding performance HGT has delivered will continue under Jim Strang."
HgCapital noted Mountford will be stepping down, to be replaced by current board member Jim Strang, effective from the end of the company's annual general meeting.
Mountford added: "More than 75% of the increase in value of unrealised investments arose from increases in profits rather than valuation multiples. This impressive result would have been even stronger but for volatility in the value of sterling which led to a 4% reduction in net asset value."
Hg, the trust's manager, said the portfolio saw a "consistent" performance in 2019 with double-digit growth.
"The top 20 investments (representing 92% of total investments by value) have delivered strong sales growth of 24% and Ebitda growth of 35% over the last twelve months the latter being an acceleration from the growth levels reported in December 2018," the manager said.
Adding: "We have seen very robust and consistent trading performance from the majority of the portfolio with particularly strong growth from P&I, Access, Visma and Commify in the technology sector and from CogitalGroup and Citation in the services sector. Whilst new to the portfolio, Litera, Transporeon and team.blue have had a good start to their partnership with Hg."
Shares in HgCapital Trust were down 3.9% in London on Monday morning at 235.40 pence each. The FTSE 250 was 5.9% lower in early trade on fears over the spread of the coronavirus and diving oil prices.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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