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(Alliance News) - Gresham House PLC had "another strong" year in 2019, the asset manager said Thursday, as it also announced an acquisition.
At the end of 2019, Gresham House had GBP2.80 billion of assets under management, 23% higher than the figure a year earlier.
The company's total income more than doubled to GBP32.9 million, while the operating loss before tax narrowed to GBP827,000 from GBP875,000.
Gresham House has increased the dividend for the year by 50% to 4.5 pence per share.
"Over the past five years, we have been building a dynamic business and I am pleased to see Gresham House deliver another year of strong performance in 2019," said Chief Executive Tony Dalwood.
We have grown organically, integrated our acquisitions well, embedded our vision for sustainability and continued our momentum to generate long term shareholder value. The 'GH25' strategic framework provides a vision for our clients, shareholders and employees over the next five years."
Looking ahead, Chair Anthony Townsend said: "We note that at the time of writing there are concerns about an economic downturn as a result of coronavirus and its impact on global stock markets.
"While we monitor this situation closely, our belief in the long-term nature of the asset classes that we operate in remains. We are optimistic about 2020 as we look beyond the achievements of 2019 and we are now focused on delivering our plan for the next five years."
Gresham House in a separate statement announced the GBP7.0 million purchase of TradeRisks Ltd, though this could rise to GBP11.0 million. TradeRisks is a fund manager specialist provider of debt structuring and advisory services to the housing and social infrastructure sectors.
TradeRisks is the parent of Residential Secure Income PLC' investment manager. Residential Secure Income had assets under management of GBP321 million as of December 31.
"We are also pleased to announce the acquisition of TradeRisks, the housing fund management, corporate finance and advisory business. TradeRisks complements our existing housing business and supports our growth plans in this area," said Gresham House's Dalwood.
Alex Pilato, the CEO of TradeRisks, said: "This is a positive development for Residential Secure Income shareholders. ReSI Capital Management will benefit from Gresham House's robust central platform that includes distribution, investor relations, compliance, reporting and risk capabilities.
"This will free up the team allowing it to focus on origination, delivering full occupancy on our shared ownership portfolio and putting in place low cost long term debt to support our returns and reach full deployment, producing high-quality and sustainable income for ReSI Capital Management's shareholders and delivering significant social value."
Shares were 6.8% higher on Thursday at midday in London at a price of 670.00p each.
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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