Intermediate Capital reports half-year of growth

Intermediate Capital Group total assets under management rose to $106bn at the end of its first half, it reported on Wednesday, as fee-earning assets under management were up 4% from 31 March to $73bn.

The FTSE 100 company said it achieved $10bn in fundraising, marking its second-highest six-month fundraising performance, including significant client capital raises for SDP V and NACP III, both approximately 50% larger than previous vintages.

Management fees increased 23% year-on-year to £287m, while performance fees grew 9% to £32m.

The fund management company’s profit before tax rose 21% to £196m, resulting in a 55.3% profit margin, reflecting ICG's focus on operational efficiency.

Group operating expenses remained stable compared to the prior half-year, up 8% year-on-year to £197m.

Investment momentum continued to build, with private debt returning to net deployment in the second quarter.

Group profit before tax was £198m, down from £242m in the first half of the 2024 financial year, and earnings per share decreased to 57.6p from 71.5p.

Despite the profit drop, ICG maintained its interim dividend, increasing slightly to 26.3p per share in line with policy.

“During the last six months we have reinforced our leading positions in flagship strategies and have significantly progressed a number of scaling strategies,” said chief executive and investment officer, Benoît Durteste.

“We are reporting near-record levels of fundraising, increasing transaction activity, higher client numbers, and growth across almost all key financial metrics.

“Senior Debt Partners completed the largest ever direct lending fundraise in Europe at $17bn1, reinforcing ICG's position of strength and incumbency to capitalise on that market.”

Durteste said the company’s structured capital, secondaries and real assets strategies - which accounted for around 55% of its fee-earning assets under management - were originating attractive opportunities and experienced higher levels of investment activity than recent periods.

“We have just hosted our annual LP gatherings in Europe, the US and Asia.

“ICG's differentiated client offering resonates strongly, founded upon our distinctive waterfront of products with top quartile performance and DPI in a number of strategies, supported by our continued platform investments.”

Benoît Durteste said that while uncertainty persisted in a number of areas, the firm was seeing that managers such as ICG could generate attractive returns and raise significant amounts of client capital.

“This is accelerating the development of a relatively small group of globally relevant, scaled private market managers, and gives us confidence as we look to our next $100bn and beyond.”

At 1012 GMT, shares in Intermediate Capital Group were down 5% at 2,128p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.