24th Jul 2019 09:39
(Alliance News) - Law Debenture Corp PLC hiked its dividend Wednesday after both its investment trust and professional services businesses delivered a "good" start to the new financial year.
Law Debenture proposed a 6.6 pence per share interim dividend, up 10% from 6.0p the year prior.
Over the 12 months to June, net asset value per share fell 3.6% to 663.67 pence. On six months earlier, however, NAV per share grew 8.1% from 614.07p.
On a total return basis, Law Debenture delivered a NAV total return of negative 0.3% over the year and positive 10.3% over the last six months.
Chief Executive Denis Jackson explained the firm had made a "good start" to the year, with its independent professional services business delivering revenue growth of 6.9% to GBP15.5 million.
Meanwhile, its investment trust business delivered a "positive" performance over the six-month period.
"We communicated to our shareholders our ambition to deliver mid to high single-digit growth for IPS for 2019 and our results to date are consistent with that," Jackson said. "We remain focussed on execution for the second half of this year, as we aim to deliver further growth against a backdrop of difficult financial market conditions."
"We are also alert to opportunities presented by acquisitions, where we believe we could utilise our balance sheet to accelerate the growth in returns for our shareholders," Jackson added. "Both the long and short-term performance of our investment portfolio remains strong."
Shares in Law Debenture were 0.3% higher at 591.90 pence in London on Wednesday.
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