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(Alliance News) - Manolete Partners PLC on Friday hiked its dividend and posted a higher annual profit after using credit facility and initial public offering proceeds to grow its in-house lawyer network.
Shares in Manolete were up 11% at 567.50 pence in London in morning trading.
The insolvency litigation financing company reported a GBP9.5 million pretax profit for its year ended March 31, up 61% from GBP5.9 million the year before.
Revenue was 36% higher at GBP18.7 million from GBP13.8 million.
Non-Executive Chair Peter Bertram said: "The company has achieved this growth through its regional network of in-house lawyers, the successful deployment of the funds raised through the HSBC credit facility and the IPO, the company's increased public profile following the IPO and the continued hard work of the team."
Manolete's IPO proceeds came to GBP14.6 million and were received in December 2018 and so far GBP8.0 million of the GBP20 million HSBC loan has been drawn down.
The Buckinghamshire-headquartered company has proposed a final dividend of 3.0p per share, twice its financial 2019 dividend of 1.49p per share.
Chief Executive Steven Cooklin said: "Despite the challenges of Covid-19, the activity levels within the business are at record levels, highlighted by the 47 new case investments and 23 case completions (up from four in the same period last year) that the team has transacted in the first quarter of FY21. New case enquiries are also at all-time record levels, running at around double the rate we had this time last year.
"We entered FY21 with GBP8.4 million of gross cash, a positive net cash balance and GBP12 million of our HSBC revolving credit facility unutilised. All these factors firmly underpin our confidence in the current and future trading performance of the business.
"With the widely reported economic disruption likely to ensue, we expect new case enquiries to increase over the foreseeable future and we will continue working to deliver outstanding returns to both insolvent estates and investors."
On Monday, Manolete reported that it "received the judgement it had been waiting for" on a possibly significant case relating to the insolvent company Bright Futures Software Ltd. Manolete's claims amounted to around GBP7 million but were held in its books at a fair value of only GBP395,000 and capitalised costs totalling approximately GBP54,000 as at March 31.
Manolete had been successful in a smaller heads of claim totalling GBP188,000 plus interest but has lost two larger heads of claim. The company said at the time that it was reviewing options for an appeal with its legal advisers.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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