BP Marsh & Partners profits almost double as well-selected investments continue to deliver
BP Marsh & Partners appears to have laid its stakes wisely, as the specialist venture capital provider announced today that its profits had almost doubled in its year to the end of January.
The figures
Profits before tax at the company grew to £10.7m, up 81.3 per cent compared with £5.9m the year before.
Meanwhile, the company's net asset value increased to £70.8m, a slightly more modest boost of 12.4 per cent compared with £63m at the end of January 2015. Meanwhile, the equity value of the company's portfolio had increased by 23.8 per cent throughout the year.
BP Marsh & Partners also announced that it would be boosting its final dividend to 3.42p per share, an increase of 24.4 per cent compared with 2.75p for the year before.
At time of writing, shares in the company were trading up 5.7 per cent at 167.5p.
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Why it's interesting
BP Marsh & Partners' strong performance arguably stems from its quality over quantity approach to investments. The company, which recently celebrated its 10th year of trading on Aim, has just 13 investments in its portfolio and, by comparison, received 71 relevant new investment proposals throughout its most recent financial year.
The number of approaches the company received in its most recent financial year also marks an increase on last year, when it received only 59.
What BP Marsh and Partners said
"We have concluded a year in which our company has developed considerable confidence," said Brian Marsh, chairman. "The portfolio businesses are performing well as we support them in their development, we have interesting new investment opportunities in the pipeline and a healthy supply of cash."
Analysts at Panmure Gordon & Co praised the venture capital provider for "another strong set of results" in their note on the announcement, adding" "The portfolio is performing well, there appears to be no shortage of interesting investment opportunities and there is cash available to invest in them."
In short
BP Marsh & Partners' results show that bigger is not always better, with its selective approach to investments seemingly paying off nicely.