22nd May 2019 13:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Livermore Investments Group Ltd said Wednesday that 2018 was a "challenging" year but the loan investor was able to keep its net asset value per share stable.
At December 31, the investment company's NAV per share was USD1.00, flat on the year before.
Livermore's net asset value slipped slightly in 2018 to USD174.3 million from USD175.4 million the year before.
During 2018, Livermore paid an interim dividend of USD0.04576 per share.
The company's portfolio is dominated by collateralized loan obligations and open warehouse facilities.
In 2018, Livermore's CLO and warehouse portfolio's generated USD29.7 million in distributions and USD14 million in net gains.
The company reported pretax profit of USD5.2 million, down on the USD16.4 million recorded in 2017.
"Management took advantage of lower funding costs to reduce the cost of financing or extend some of its CLO positions as well as created new CLOs with long reinvestment periods at very low cost of financing in early 2018 as well as sold some of its short reinvestment period positions. Interest and distribution income from the financial portfolio totalled USD31.5 million," added the company.
"Overall, 2018 was a challenging year for most asset classes and most market participants. Public equities, government bonds, fixed rate investment bonds as well as most credit markets ended in the red. In light of the investment environment, the company achieved a relatively strong performance in 2018," said Livermore.
During the year, Livermore invested an additional USD32.8 million in primarily new issue CLO equity positions and disposed USD16 million of CLO positions, while its warehouse portfolio increased by USD13 million compared to the beginning of 2017.
Livermore added: "Considering the strong liquidity position of Livermore, together with its strong foothold in the US CLO market as well as the robustness of its investment portfolio and the alignment of management's interests with those of its shareholders, management believes that the company is well positioned to benefit from current market conditions."
Shares in Livermore Investments were untraded Wednesday, last closing at 40.60p each.
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Livermore