Gresham House assets under management grow 19pc in first half

Gresham House updated the market on its first half on Thursday, with assets under management growing 19% year-on-year to £4.7bn.

The AIM-traded firm said it had continued to invest in its business during the six months ended 30 June, with a number of key hires in high-growth opportunities aligned with its investment strategies and products.

It said it had also continued to drive synergies from the TradeRisks acquisition, with £0.9m of cost synergies captured to-date.

Gresham House said it had continued to focus on using its balance sheet to develop the business, including further investment of £5.7m in the development of battery energy storage projects, and £4.8m in funds that the group had launched and managed.

That included an investment which supported the creation of a “pioneering” new sustainable infrastructure asset class, seeking to develop dedicated areas of land to establish new biodiversity.

The company reported “strong progress” against its 2021 fundraising targets during the half-year, which contributed to the increase in assets under management.

ReSI LP, the shared ownership housing fund, held a first close in May with commitments of £70m and deployment by 30 June of £16m.

The firm said its housing team's “strong” pipeline was expected to support further fundraising in the second half.

ReSI plc had also delivered “excellent” performance in the period, and was now operating at a premium to net asset value as at 30 June.

Within the Group's British Strategic Investment Fund (BSIF) strategy, the BSI Infrastructure LP was now fully committed, and the group said it was on track to raise its second sustainable infrastructure fund, the British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund II (BSIF II), in the second half.

Following the end of the period, in July the Gresham House Energy Storage Fund (GRID) launched and closed a fundraise of £100m, which the board said underlined the growth potential and “market-leading nature” of GRID's battery energy storage projects, and further demonstrated the attractiveness of its investment strategies.

The fundraise was significantly oversubscribed, and a scaling-back exercise was undertaken.

“We have delivered strong progress in the first half, with growth in assets under management from both organic initiatives and acquisition activity,” said chief executive officer Tony Dalwood.

“The depth and breadth of our investor base continues to increase, driven by appetite for our environmental, social and governance (ESG)-focussed investment strategies and strong investment performance, and we are well on track to achieve our ‘GH25’ objectives.

“We continue to invest in building our specialist teams with a focus on scalable or differentiated products and see good momentum across the business as we enter the second half.”

At 1014 BST, shares in Gresham House were down 0.54% at 920p.