For all the talk of a potential rise in UK interest rates, they remain meagre, pushing institutional investors to seek out alternative assets to generate income. That’s good news for specialist asset management Intermediate Capital (ICP), which invests across a range of debt, private equity and real estate via its closed-ended funds. Overall assets under management were up a fifth last year, with €7.8bn (£6.84bn) of new capital raised.
Around €4.2bn of those funds were raised by its largest single strategy Senior Debt Partners, which closed its third vintage. Assets under management within that strategy increased more than two-thirds during the year. Meanwhile, its North American Mezzanine Debt strategy closed a $1.3bn (£966m) funding round for its second fund, which is almost three-quarters larger than its predecessor. Overall, the fund management business invested a record $4.9bn, up a fifth on the prior year. That means some of its larger strategies are raising successor funds earlier than expected.
However, net investment returns from its balance sheet investments declined more than a fifth to £240m, due to lower investment realisations. The total balance sheet portfolio increased 11 per cent to £1.9bn.
Analysts at Shore Capital expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £198m for the 12 months to March 2019, giving EPS of 69.3p (from £168m and 79.3p in 2018).
| INTERMEDIATE CAPITAL (ICP) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 1,201p | MARKET VALUE: | £3.49bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,119-1,202p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,212p | LOW: 803p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.5% | PE RATIO: | 14 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 454p | NET DEBT: | 59% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 464 | 164 | 37 | 21 |
| 2015 | 426 | 179 | 50.3 | 22 |
| 2016 | 449 | 159 | 41.9 | 23 |
| 2017 | 625 | 252 | 74.5 | 27 |
| 2018 | 600 | 199 | 88.8 | 30 |
| % change | -4 | -21 | +19 | +11 |
| Ex-div: | 14 Jun | |||
| Payment: | 7 Aug |
