26th Mar 2015 07:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - International Public Partnerships Ltd, which invests in public infrastructure projects, Thursday reported a 27% jump in pretax profit in 2014 as higher investment income and lower expenses more than offset increased finance costs.
In a statement, International Public Partnerships said it made a GBP71.2 million pretax profit in 2014, compared with GBP56.1 million in the prior year. Investment income, which the company refers to as its returns from portfolio investments, increased to GBP90.1 million from GBP77.2 million, including fair value movements, dividends received and interest. Expenses fell to GBP15.7 million from GBP23.9 million, but finance costs rose to GBP2.7 million from GBP1.4 million.
The company said that net asset value increased to GBP1.062 billion at the end of 2014 from GBP935.4 million at the end of 2013, representing an increase of 3.3% of NAV per share, which moved to 127.0 pence per share from 123.0 pence per share.
International Public Partnerships increased its dividend for the year to 6.30 pence per share from 6.15 pence per share.
Chairman Rupert Dorey said that the company's performance in the first few months of 2015 has shown promise.
"We continue to have a high degree of confidence in the existing portfolio's ability to generate increasing returns for investors in line with published expectations. We are also encouraged by the number of new opportunities which we see," Dorey said.
"While there is undoubtedly increased competition for the types of assets in which the company invests, we remain confident in the ability of the company and its investment adviser to continue to identify and execute new investments in core markets to strengthen the company's portfolio further," Dorey said.
"Where new investment opportunities do arise we will continue to be selective in those acquisitions which we bring into the portfolio to ensure that they bring long-term value to shareholders," he added.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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