Final results for the year ended 31 March 2019
Gresham House Strategic plc (GHS or the Company) is pleased to announce its final audited results for the year ended 31 March 2019.
The Company invests primarily in UK and European smaller public companies, applying private equity techniques and due diligence alongside a value investment philosophy to construct a focused portfolio, the majority of which is expected to be comprised of 10-15 companies.
HIGHLIGHTS
Investment highlights
§ One of the top-performing UK small-cap funds[1], delivering a market-leading NAV total return of 8.0% from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, vs -3.1% total return for the FTSE Small Cap Index
§ NAV growth driven by the strong performance of several investments, including Augean, Tax Systems, IMImobile and Northbridge
§ Realisations of £16.4m generating net realised profits of £5.4m against cost; including IMImobile (£13.8m, £4.96m profit), and Miton group (£1.7m, £0.57m profit)
§ Significant positive engagement in investments experiencing performance difficulties; value recovery plans are underway or currently being prepared
§ Final dividend of 11.1p per share proposed, bringing total dividends for the year to 19.85p per share
Operational highlights
§ Total shareholder returns of 20.4% in the year as the GHS share price rose from 827p to 970p and dividends paid, £1.9m cash returned to GHS shareholders
§ Share price discount to NAV reduced from 30.0% at 31 March 2018 to 22.6% at 31 March 2019
§ Significant portfolio construction efforts to create a more balanced portfolio; IMImobile weighting reduced from 43% to c.20%, five smaller investments exited, new strategic investments built in Augean and Pressure Technologies
§ Exciting pipeline of strategic deals targeting completion in H1 FY 2020
§ The recently announced joint venture between Gresham House and Aberdeen Standard Investments relating to the Strategic Public Equity (SPE) strategy, is expected to deliver significant positive benefits for GHS over the longer term (see Chairman's Statement)
Post-period end:
§ Completion of sale of Tax Systems, generating £2.0m proceeds and £0.7m profit
§ Announcement of a £2.5m strategic investment into Pressure Technologies, an AIM-listed engineering business, investing alongside other Gresham House funds creating a combined holding in Pressure Technologies in excess of 19%
§ Completion in June of a pre-IPO £2.1m strategic investment into Lakes Distillery plc by means of a fixed return, secured Convertible Loan Note (CLN)
§ NAV Total Return performance has continued post period end, up a further 1.4% to 1335.3p in the eight weeks to 31 May 2019, again outperforming the FTSE Small Cap (-0.9%) and the All-Share (-2.2%) Indices
The Company has announced that a final dividend of 11.1p in respect of the year ended 31 March 2019 is proposed by the Board. This will be put to shareholders at the AGM which is to be held at 10am on 19 September 2019 at the offices of Bracher Rawlins LLP, 77 Kingsway, London WC2B 6SR.
If approved, the dividend will be paid on 31 July 2019, to shareholders on the register of members on 5 July 2019, the ex-dividend date will be 4 July 2019.