28th Mar 2019 08:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - International Public Partnerships Ltd on Thursday met its annual dividend target, while it expects to do so again in the next two years.
International PPL is paying a dividend of 7 pence per share in total for 2018, 2.6% higher than the 6.82p returned in the prior year, meaning it has met its target of approximately 2.5% growth annually.
The infrastructure project investor expects 2019 and 2020's total returns to be 7.18p and 7.36p, respectively.
International PPL's net asset value per share at December's end was 148.1p, up from 145.0p a year prior, with overall net asset value rising 7.9% over the year to GBP2.20 billion.
Total income for 2018 was GBP167.7 million, up 19% from GBP140.4 million a year prior, while pretax profit rose 30% to GBP138.1 million from GBP106.4 million.
Chair Michael Gerrard said: "The company has once again delivered its target level dividend through a year of strong portfolio performance.
"The visibility of underlying cashflows, the quality of our portfolio and the active approach to asset management undertaken by the company's investment adviser gives the board full confidence in delivering future returns for shareholders."
"The company's focus will continue to be on a wide range of established and emerging asset classes where we believe private finance can deliver outstanding infrastructure and good value for money for our clients and end-users," Gerrard continued.
"Our existing portfolio combined with a promising pipeline of global and diversified investment opportunities will support our ability to continue to deliver predictable, long-term, inflation linked returns to our shareholders with a consistently low correlation to the broader equity market."
Some of International PPL's largest investments are the Tideway "super-sewer" under the River Thames, gas network operator Cadent Gas Ltd, some UK offshore windfarms, and a new train programme in Sydney, Australia.
The company invested GBP105 million into new or follow-up projects in 2018, meaning it now has 130 assets in its portfolio. It plans GBP150 million to GBP155 million of investments in 2019 in Cadent alone.
Shares were 0.4% higher on Thursday in early London trade at a price of 158.35 pence each.
Related Shares:
International Public Partnerships