Results round-up

Investment company Personal Assets Trust reported increased net assets despite the uncertain economic climate, which has led it to take a cautious stance about the future

Investment adviser Sebastian Lyon said “all is not well with the financial world” of slashed interest rates, fallen sterling and Japanese and German sovereign 10-year bond yields turning negative.

He said that with the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election victory in the US, and upcoming referendums and elections in Europe, it sees that “political outcomes are likely to offer investors asymmetrical risks, skewed to the downside,” so it has taken a defensive position as portfolio activity was minimal during the period and liquidity remained high.

For the six months ended 31 October, the net asset value per share rose by 7.5% to £394.85, compared to the same period last year.

The share price rose by £24.50 to £397 over the period, a 0.5% premium to the net asset value at the end of October.

During the six months the FTSE 250 company said its shares continued to trade close to net asset value.

It continued to maintain a high level of liquidity at 53.2%, which slipped from 56% last year.

As shareholders funds climbed 12.6% to £721.7m, earnings per share fell to £3.13 from £4.78 and its dividend per share declined to £2.80 from £5.60.

Engineering distribution firm Electrocomponents reported a healthy 44% jump in first half pre-tax headline profits to £55.1m.

Reported profits were up 174% to £54.5m after the reduction in exceptional charges to £0.6m to £11.4 million. Revenues were up to £706m from £626m, boosted by £58m in foreign exchange benefits. The interim dividend is unchanged at 5p.

The company said it had made an encouraging start to the second half of the year, with all hubs seeing an improvement in underlying revenue growth in October versus the Q2 trend.

“The return to positive revenue growth that we saw in our North America and Asia Pacific hubs in Q2 has continued. Northern and Southern Europe are again seeing good growth, while Central Europe returned to modest growth in the month.”

“We have raised our cost savings guidance to £18m of net savings in 2017 and total annualised net savings of £30 million by March 2018. Work continues to identify further efficiencies and simplify the way we operate. All these actions mean that we are well positioned to make strong progress in the year to March 2017.”