John Laing reports underlying portfolio growth in year to date
Company will announces placing to repay credit facility
Board will seek increase in limit on gearing
Company sees increased opportunities in Asia, Europe and North America
Updated : 11:24
John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) said on Thursday that had an underlying portfolio growth of 8.34% to £867.8m including new investments in the year to date.
The company said the portfolio growth was ahead of an expected 8.12%, according to a trading update. The portfolio also achieved cash distributions of £73.3m, £4.3m ahead of project forecasts.
Unaudited net asset value (NAV) came to 108.4p per share at 31 December 2015, representing a NAV total return over the year of 5.35% including two dividends paid in May and October.
At the end of 2015 JLIF had cash available of £33.8m and £17m drawn on its revolving credit facility.
Since year-end, the company has repaid the £17m drawn on its revolving credit facility and completed the purchase of an indirect 40% interest in the Barcelona Line 9 Section II metro project for £85m. The acquisition was funded by existing cash resources and by drawing £84.5m its revolving credit facility.
JLIF announced a dividend of 3.41p for the second half of 2015, an increase of 1% on the previous payment.
However, JLIF warned that it has “recognised the slowdown in UK deal flow and the increase in activity in Continental Europe, as well as the establishment of pipelines in North America and Asia Pacific, and this became increasingly evident in 2015”.
“There were only a handful of projects in the UK market that changed ownership through auction processes during 2015,” JLIF said.
“The main source of opportunities predominantly came from southern and western Europe, with northern and eastern Europe also showing signs of developing short and medium term pipelines.”
FTSE 250-listed JLIF said it was in advanced discussions on acquisitions totalling about £150m of assets, including public–private partnership projects across Western Europe and the UK.
In a separate announcement, and to access the increased opportunities in Asia, Europe and North America, the company´s board proposed a placing of 81.2m new shares to repay its revolving credit facility.
At the next annual general meeting in May 2016 the board would also propose an increase in the company´s gearing limit from 25% to 35%.
JLIF shares currently yield 5.7% and trade at about a 9.5% premium to NAV. Ongoing charges as of the last financial year stand at 1.43%, Killik pointed out to clients.