Results round-up

British Empire Trust posted its annual report for the 12 months to 30 September on Friday, with net asset value per share total return for the year of 31% and share price total return of 34.3%.

The FTSE 250 company reported investment income of £20.69m, down marginally on the £20.93m recorded in 2015, although revenue earnings per share rose to 14.32p from 11.75p.

Its capital earnings per share were 141.72p, swinging from a 59.95p capital losses per share in 2015, and total earnings per share were 156.04p, from losses of 48.2p per share last year.

Ordinary dividends per share remained in line with the prior year at 11.7p, though British Empire paid special dividends of 2.8p in 2016, while it paid no such dividends in 2015.

“There are an unusually large number of risks for investors at the time of writing,” said chairman Strone Macpherson.

“On the geopolitical front, the consequences of the outcome of the US election, the Brexit arrangements to be negotiated, the German, French and other European elections in the year ahead, and the turmoil in the Middle East, are all major uncertainties.”

Macpherson said the risk of significant policy errors by Central Banks also remained high.

“However, despite all these difficulties, and the volatility that they bring to the investment markets, such volatility often produces pricing anomalies for value investors such as British Empire.”

This year's results were encouraging, Macpherson explained, before stressing the importance to recognise that British Empire has a portfolio of investments containing a large store of unrealised value reflected in the considerable see-through discount.

Global Invacom, an AIM listed satellite communications equipment provider, swung to a third quarter net profit of $0.7m, up from a loss of $2.7m incurred in the previous period.

The group’s second consecutive quarter of profitability came on the back of increased demand in the US for the company’s electronics products.

Gross profit also rose by 15.4% to $7.2m. Gross profit margin improved to 22.6% from 19.5% due to a favourable product mix, improved efficiency and tighter factory cost control.

Revenue for the third quarter was basically down by a marginal 0.4% to $32.1m due to a $2.3m reduction in the Electronics Manufacturing services and lower year-on-year sales orders in Asia.

With the inclusion of Global Skyware third quarter revenue from America and Europe rose $2.3m and $0.5m respectively offset by a fall in revenue from Asia and the rest of the world by $2.1m and $0.8m respectively.

Earnings per share on fully diluted basis was 0.26 cents compared to a loss per share of 1.04 cents in the previous period.

The group has also completed the first phase of research and development for next generation Low Noise Block products that support digital channel stacking switch technology. It has secured production approval for column supply to its largest customer which will commence in the fourth quarter.