Foresight appoints new infrastructure co-chief on strong demand for sustainable investments
London-listed sustainable investment manager Foresight has this morning announced the appointment of Ricardo Piñeiro as a new co-head of its infrastructure division, as the group expects the trends driving its rapid growth in sustainable infrastructure investment to continue apace.
Assets under management rose 13 per cent to £8.1bn in the six months to 30 September, up from £7.2bn in March.
Group revenue was in line with expectations at £39.7m, up 22 per cent from £32.4m a year earlier, of which Foresight said 89.5 per cent was ‘high quality recurring revenue’, and comfortably within its target range.
Foresight attributed most of this revenue growth to an increase in management fees as a direct result of its increased funds under management, and said it continues to experience minimal fee margin compression.
Capital deployment across the group’s infrastructure and private equity funds jumped 43 per cent to £295m across 51 assets in the six month period, up from £206m a year earlier.
Net inflows reached £0.7bn across both its retail and institutional funds, which the group said underlined the value of its “broad range of strategies.”
Its retail inflows have returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the group closed its new Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners fund at the beginning of september with total commitments of €851m – 70 per cent ahead of its original target.
Foresight’s private equity unit closed its third regional investment fund in May with £66m commitments.
It comes after Foresight branched out with an IPO of its Sustainable Forestry Company, a new fund to invest solely in UK forestry assets. But the IPO after the period end on 24 November came in lower than expected, raising £130m – £70m shy of its £200m target.
Following the group’s revenue gains, Foresight’s board announced an interim dividend of 4 pence per share, equating to £4.3m, to be paid to shareholders on 25 March 2022 – reflecting the increased payout ratio of 60 per cent it announced in July.
Looking ahead, Foresight said it was “excellently positioned to capture benefits of the strong sector tailwinds further highlighted by COP26”, and said it was on track to deliver on its target thanks to a “significant pipeline” of new fund launches and deployment it has lined up for the second half.
“This performance, combined with a very favourable sector outlook, the recent successful listing of our first dedicated forestry fund and a strong near-term pipeline of new launches and deployment, underpins the board’s considerable confidence in achieving the group’s targets for the full year to 31 March 2022,” said executive chairman Bernard Fairman.