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LONDON (Alliance News) - Impax Environmental Markets PLC said Thursday that its net asset value per ordinary share returned 3%, driven by the renewable energy and energy efficiency subsectors.
In an interim management statement for the three months to March 31, 2014, the firm said its NAV returned 3%, ahead of the MSCI All Country World Index, which rose 0.4%, but behind the FTSE ET100 Index of environmental subsector stocks, which rose 5.2%.
Impax Environmental said the strong performance was driven by the renewable energy and energy efficiency subsectors and by European holdings. Underperformance of the FTSE ET100 during the period largely reflects continued share price gains by US technology stocks not owned by the company, it said.
During the quarter, Impax said its share price traded at an average discount to NAV of 10.6%, in line with the 10.7% discount recorded at the end of 2013.
Looking ahead, the company said it remains positive on the outlook for global equity markets for 2014, albeit with periods of volatility. "Fundamentals continue to improve across a broad range of environmental markets. Despite the re-rating of the portfolio in the last 18 months, the premium to global indices remains in line with historical levels. The focus is now on delivery of earnings expectations and the Manager is confident in this regard based on a robust performance in recent earnings seasons," said the company.
Shares Impax Environmental were trading 1.47% higher at 151.188 pence per share Thursday morning.
By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance
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