John Laing's gilt-edged valuation boost

Industry pundits now expect Theresa May's government to announce new spending plans in the autumn. That's good news for infrastructure specialists like John Laing Group (JLG), though the group's latest set of results since its re-admission as a publicly traded entity suggest it has been faring pretty well anyway. An 8.3 per cent increase in net asset vaue since the year-end was ahead of market expectations, driven in part by favourable currency translations and a 40 basis point reduction in the benchmark discount rate to 9.1 per cent.

The portfolio valuation increased 12 per cent from the year-end to £945m (split equally between primary and secondary investments), on a fair value uplift of £128m. While the fall-away in gilt yields should prove beneficial to valuations through lower benchmark rates, the group's pension deficit - though stable at the half-year mark on an accounting basis - could eventually swell.

You would be hard pressed to identify any Brexit-linked effect on the project pipeline, up 19 per cent to £1.78bn, reflecting a commensurate step-up in potential public private partnerships. Midway through August 2016, the group had either been shortlisted, or achieved preferred bidder status, on seven key new projects. Not only that, but John Laing has just acquired a 30 per cent stake in the Nordergründe offshore wind farm in the German North Sea - its first venture in that segment of the energy market.

HSBC gives respective book value and earnings of 290p and 55.7p a share for the December 2016 year-end, against 242p and 26.9p a year earlier.