City of London's full year losses widen

City of London Group (COLG), an AIM listed investment company that focuses on providing finance to the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, reported on Monday a deeper annual loss.

Following a significant deterioration in its financial position, its Trade Finance Partners Limited (TFPL) business ceased undertaking new business in the second half of the year and is now focused on recovering advances.

As a result of the £7.2m loss relating to TFPL, the company recorded a loss before tax of £6.8m for the year ending 31 March 2016 compared to £1.6m in 2015.

During the period, the firm also sold its Litigation funding associate Therium in April 2015 for a profit of £1.4m.

Its Credit Asset Management Limited (CAML) raised £5m in 7% preference shares in July and completed a restructuring resulting in the company increasing its interest in CAML from 51% to 85%. Out of the net proceeds £2m was allocated to buy 7% of preference shares in CAML and the balance was used to repay debt. CAML increased its portfolio of owned and managed funds by 31% to £21.3m at the year end.

The company’s wider strategic options for CAML are being examined to help it achieve scale, which may result in the sale of the business.

Net asset value per share of the company of fell to 6p from 42p in 2015.

The share price rose 3.70% to 3.50p at 1000 BST on Monday.