Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) delivered an impressive first-half performance, which included a near four-fold rise in adjusted operating profit to £3.92m. Non-cash and other adjustments reduced this to £1.73m, but it's still a big improvement on the £3.95m loss racked up a year earlier.
Assets under management rose from £2.4bn to £3.4bn and, crucially, that included net fund inflows of £315m. Performance in the second half continued that trend, too, with assets in mid-November having reached £3.62bn. Moreover, the group has expanded its product range and distribution base with the acquisition of North Investment Partners in October, bringing with it an additional £123m of managed funds. The purchase will also give the group greater access to the adviser market in the wake of changes on the back of the Retail Distribution Review. Moreover, the group's investment performance was particularly impressive and, with one exception, all of its actively managed unit trust funds were in the top performance quartile of their respective sectors.
Broker Numis Securities has upgraded its full-year year forecasts and expects pre-tax profit of £8.6m, giving EPS of 15.1p (from £3.7m and 7.6p in 2013), rising to 20.8p in 2015.
| LIONTRUST ASSET MANAGEMENT (LIO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 254p | MARKET VALUE: | £108m | |
| TOUCH: | 253-260p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 257p | LOW: 100p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.8% | PE RATIO: | 98 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 47p* | NET CASH: | £10.4m | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 8.23 | -3.95 | -10.5 | nil |
| 2013 | 13.6 | 1.73 | 3.30 | 1.00 |
| % change | +66 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 20 Nov Payment: 20 Dec *Includes intangible assets of £8.7m, or 21p a share | ||||
