John Laing Infrastructure Fund Share News (JLIF)

(Sharecast News) - John Laing reported an increase in 2019 asset values as strong project delivery and asset management helped the infrastructure company offset renewable energy writedowns and falling power prices.
The FTSE 250 company's net asset value rose to £1.66bn, or 337p a share, at 31 December from £1.59bn, or 323p a share, a year earlier. Pretax profit fell to £100m from £296m due to renewable energy writedowns and an exceptional gain in 2018.

The company said it would no longer invest in standalone wind and solar energy projects after taking losses of £103m on European wind assets and Australian renewable energy projects. Reduced power and gas price forecasts caused losses of £48m.

John Laing said renewable energy assts had become commoditised and too risky for the returns offered. The company said it intended to sell its existing wind and solar assets to take advantage of strong demand for renewable energy assets.

Olivier Brousse, John Laing's chief executive, said: "John Laing delivered a solid performance overall in 2019. We are pleased to report further value enhancements in the second half as expected, which, along with the significant progress made on our large PPP [public private partnership] projects, have helped to mitigate the impact of the first half writedowns in our renewable energy portfolio and the impact of falling power prices."

John Laing shares rose 5.2% to 359.60p at 08:15 GMT.

Value enhancements in the year were £157m as John Laing extended asset lives, cut costs and refinanced projects. The company said it would not keep up this pace of increase and that value gains would switch to a more normal level of 3-5% in 2020.

John Laing announced a final dividend of 7.66p a share, taking the annual payout to 9.5p - unchanged from 2018.