First-half profits were maintained at City of London Investment Group, despite a fall in assets under management from $5.5bn (£3.6bn) a year earlier to $4.8bn. The emerging market and natural resource focused asset manager admitted that, given volatile trading conditions, priority was given to bearing down on costs without compromising long-term business plans.
Still, the 17.2 per cent slide in assets under management was better than the 19.3 per cent decline in the MSCI emerging markets index over the same period. Adopting a more risk-averse approach has certainly helped to keep investors on board and, while there were redemptions of $282m in the first half, new client money resulted in a $41.4m net inflow of funds. Fee income was maintained at £17.2m, too, and payments of £2.6m to former third-party marketing consultant North Bridge Capital will begin to fall significantly as a result of the decision to bring marketing in-house. Moreover, two additional marketing executives are already helping to boost new mandates for the group's natural resource funds.
Singer Capital Markets is forecasting full-year adjusted pre-tax profits of £11.3m and EPS of 30.5p (from £13.1m and 35.1p in 2011).
| CITY OF LONDON INVESTMENT GROUP (CLIG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 348p | MARKET VALUE: | £93m | |
| TOUCH: | 345-354p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 452p | LOW: 300p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 6.8% | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 47p | NET CASH: | £5.9m | |
| Half-year to 30 Nov | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 17.2 | 5.73 | 16.0 | 8 |
| 2011 | 17.2 | 6.10 | 16.2 | 8 |
| % change | - | +6 | +1 | - |
Ex-div: 8 Feb Payment: 27 Feb | ||||
