LONDON (Alliance News) - Closed-ended investment company EJF Investments Ltd on Tuesday reported a sharp rise in net assets in 2018, but they have decreased slightly in the first two months in 2019,
EFJ will also be targeting a higher dividend payout going forward.
At December 31, the company's NAV per share stood at 178.42 pence compared to 158.23p at the end of 2017, a 13% increase.
EJF Investments' net assets increased 33% over 2018 to GBP114.5 million from GBP86.3 million the year before. The company issued 15.0 million shares during the period.
As of February 28, the company's NAV per share had slipped slightly to 177.1p with a similar decrease in net assets to GBP113.7 million.
EJF Investments declared a final quarterly dividend of 2.675p, giving the company a total dividend of 10.175p, which represents a dividend yield of 5.7% of NAV. Going forward, EJF Investments in targeting a dividend yield of 6%, or 10.7p.
The company said the increased target represents its confidence in its resources and prospects for 2019.
Including dividends, EJF Investments NAV total return in 2018 was 19%.
Chair Joanna Dentskevich said: "The strong performance was mainly driven by three factors. Firstly, in January and April sales of certain legacy REIT TruPS CDO securities in the secondary market generated realised gains of GBP9.7 million.
"Secondly, these gains along with newly raised capital, were reinvested in Risk Retention investments. Thirdly, gains on EJF's investment in the Collateralised Debt Obligation Manager generated GBP2.2 million through the resulting collateral management contracts acquired pursuant to these securitisations. These contracts provide a steady cash flow without requiring any investment outlay on acquisition."
Looking ahead, Dentskevich is confident in EJF's ability to grow its portfolio due to the market outlook and the company's healthy pipeline of investments.
Shares in EJF were untraded Tuesday but last closed at 184.0p each. The company's 2022 ZDP share class was also untraded, last quoted at 113.0p.