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Interim Management Statement

19th May 2011 07:00

RNS Number : 8407G
John Laing Infrastructure Fund
19 May 2011
 

JOHN LAING INFRASTRUCTURE FUND

INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

 

John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF), the international PPP/PFI infrastructure investment company, today announces its Interim Management Statement (IMS) for the period 1 January 2011 to 19 May 20111.

Highlights

·; Portfolio Value showed underlying growth of 2.90% to £269.3m in the first quarter

·; Net Asset Value (NAV) increased by £5.4m to £277.7m as at 31 March 2011

·; NAV per share increased from 100.8p to 102.8p

·; Successfully raised £27.4m through a Tap Issue on 7 April 2011

·; Agreed acquisition of four projects from the John Laing Group (John Laing), Bentilee Community Centre and an additional stake in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital were completed during April and Cleveland Police Headquarters and Roseberry Park are anticipated to be acquired shortly, subject to receiving the appropriate consents

·; First dividend paid in line with expectations

·; Signed a £25m Revolving Credit Facility with RBS

·; Entered the FTSE SmallCap Index on 9 March 2011

Paul Lester, Chairman of the John Laing Infrastructure Fund, said:

"JLIF has been highly active since the start of 2011. We successfully raised £27.4 million and agreed to acquire 3 new assets from John Laing and increase our stake in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. We signed a £25 million Credit Facility, which gives us the flexibility to execute further acquisitions quickly. This is important as we continue to see attractive opportunities emerging. We are pleased with the performance to date and remain confident of maintaining it throughout 2011."

David Marshall & Andrew Charlesworth, Directors of John Laing Capital Management Limited (JLCM), Investment Advisor to JLIF, said:

"We are delighted that JLIF successfully raised £27.4 million to acquire the four stakes in assets from John Laing, which are all in line with JLIF's Investment Policy stated in the October 2010 Prospectus (the Prospectus).

The Portfolio has grown in line with expectations and we expect it to continue to do so. We have been successful during the period in identifying value enhancements to assets to improve the overall performance of the portfolio.

The outlook for PFI/PPP infrastructure projects remains favourable. We expect to benefit from JLIF's strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities and are actively reviewing third party acquisitions that fit the JLIF Investment Policy."

Capital Raising

JLIF successfully raised £27.4 million through a placing of an additional 9.9% of its shares on 7 April 2011. The proceeds from the Tap Issue are being used to fund the acquisition from John Laing of 3 new assets and an additional stake in Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The placing resulted in 26.73 million new ordinary shares being issued.

Dividends

JLIF paid its first dividend of 0.5 pence per share on 7 April 2011 in line with expectations set out in the Prospectus. JLIF anticipates its next dividend to be paid in October 2011 in line with the Prospectus. JLIF remains confident that its dividend projections are comfortably cash covered in the short term.

Gearing

JLIF had no recourse debt (excluding non recourse debt within each investment) at launch. As stated in the Prospectus, JLIF has the ability to raise debt of up to 25% of the Fund's asset value. JLIF took advantage of this opportunity and on the 21 March 2011 signed a revolving credit facility with RBS. The Facility is currently available for JLIF utilisation and will be used primarily to fund third party acquisitions. JLIF has not drawn the Facility to date and does not currently anticipate doing so prior to 30 June 2011.

Portfolio Performance

The Portfolio has increased in value by £4.6 million to £269.3 million during the period 31 December 2010 to 31 March 2011. Against a rebased 31 December 2010 Portfolio value, after taking account of distributions received from projects in the quarter, the Portfolio value has increased by £7.5 million, net of a decrease in value of £0.1 million due to exchange rate depreciation. The increase is driven by enhancements to the value of the assets in the portfolio being efficiencies found in the underlying project spend profiles and financing of the individual projects, coupled with corporation tax savings following the changes announced in the April 2011 budget.

The NAV per share has increased from 100.8p at 31 December 2010 to 102.8p at 31 March 2011 primarily as a result of the increase in the Portfolio value. The NAV as at 31 March 2011 is net of the dividend of £1.35 million approved in February 2011 and paid on 7 April 2011.

The placing of additional shares had a neutral impact on NAV. The effect on the Group's financial position of the acquisitions from John Laing would be to marginally decrease NAV per share from 102.8p to 102.7p due to costs incurred in the purchase. Cash flows from the portfolio continue in line with the projections made by the Investment Advisor based on the underlying project models.

Pipeline

JLIF intends to make further acquisitions from John Laing within the next 12 months and are actively considering third party options. JLCM, on behalf of JLIF, are keen to seek new assets that are in line with JLIF's strict investment criteria. It is important to ensure that any assets acquired are at the right price, suit JLIF and fit well with the existing Portfolio. There have been a number of other third party opportunities which JLCM have reviewed. They have however been turned down on the basis that they do not meet the criteria. 

 

Outlook

The outlook for PFI/PPP infrastructure investment companies remains positive. With interest rates historically low, inflation rates remaining high and the outlook for the UK and global economies still uncertain, there is good demand for infrastructure investment stocks, given their stable, low risk, predictable yield and partial inflation protection.

The primary infrastructure market in the UK is improving. After much deliberation, the Government has decided to resume many of the transactions that had been put on hold. Projects are coming to market and deals are progressing. The market in Europe and the Americas is continuing to flourish. Governments in those areas are welcoming PFI/PPP as a method of procurement to upgrade their infrastructure assets. JLCM is actively analysing these areas, not just for current opportunities but future target acquisitions.

JLCM believes there will be further acquisition opportunities available to market participants over the next couple of years, which will maintain and improve the liquidity in the infrastructure space.

Note:

This IMS aims to give an indication of material events and transactions that have taken place during the period from 31 December 2010 to 19 May 2011 and their impact on the financial position of the Investment group. These indications reflect JLCM's and the Board's current views. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and could change. Factors which could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, general economic and market conditions and specific factors affecting the financial prospects or performance of individual investments within the portfolio of JLIF.

This IMS contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about future events. Undue reliance should not be placed on any such statements because they speak only as at the date of this document and, by their very nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause actual results and JLIF's actions to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements.

This IMS has been prepared solely to provide additional information to shareholders as a body to meet the relevant requirements of the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules and this IMS should not be relied on by any other party or for any other purpose.

David Marshall Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7901 3326

Email: [email protected]

Andrew Charlesworth

Email: [email protected]

Finsbury Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7251 3801

Faeth Birch

Gordon Simpson

Philip Walters

 

 


1 The release and content of this IMS is in accordance with the FSA Disclosure and Transparency Rule 4.3. Any reference to the Group or Investment group

below refers to JLIF and its corporate subsidiaries.

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
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