22nd May 2025 12:07
(Alliance News) - Impax Asset Management Group PLC on Thursday reported a decline in assets under management during a "challenging" first half of its financial year, but its shares rose as it said it plans a GBP10 million share buyback.
The AIM listing was up 9.3% to 1801.80 pence midday Thursday in London. The shares are down 28% so far in 2025 and 65% in the past 12 months.
Shares are down almost two-thirds over the past year. In December, Impax said it lost two core equities accounts from wealth manager St James's Place PLC. SJP terminated Impax Asset Management's mandate to manage the Sustainable & Responsible Equity Fund.
Assets under management listed equities at the end of March totalled GBP23.30 billion, falling 33% from GBP35.02 billion at the end of September. Total AuM including fixed income and private markets is GBP25.33 million, down from GBP37.19 billion.
Impax suffered GBP10.20 billion in net outflows during the six months. This included the St James's Place cancellation - which had represented 15% of total AuM and 8% of annualised revenue - and "a small number of account closures within our institutional channel".
It also had negative market and currency movements of GBP1.65 billion.
"Although many of the investment strategies that we manage lagged generic benchmarks during 2023 and 2024, there are strong signs that this period is behind us and that our investment focus can once again deliver attractive returns," commented Chief Executive Officer Ian Simm.
"Since the start of the calendar year, our relative investment performance has improved. As at 30 April 2025, 71% of our AuM had outperformed their generic benchmarks since 1 January 2025."
For the six months that ended March 31, pretax profit was GBP18.6 million, down 24% from GBP24.6 million a year before, as revenue fell by 11% to GBP76.5 million from GBP86.2 million.
Impax lowers its interim dividend to 4.0p per share from 4.7p. However, it announced a share buyback worth up to GBP10 million.
"As part of the board's capital management approach, we will also consider returning to shareholders surplus capital through share buybacks, while also ensuring there is sufficient capital available to fund future growth opportunities when they arise. In line with this, we intend to return up to GBP10 million of capital to shareholders before the end of the calendar year through a share buyback programme."
The buyback will be run by broker Peel Hunt LLP. It will start on Thursday and be completed by December 31. All the shares repurchased will be cancelled, Impax said.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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Related Shares:
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