Crystal Amber Fund Assets Grow In Year, Thanks To Leaf Clean Energy

(Alliance News) - Crystal Amber Fund Ltd on Friday declared its annual performance to be "encouraging" following an improvement in net asset value.

The investment company said NAV per share as at June 30 was 249.12 pence, up from 244.61p reported a year earlier and 221.67p at the end of 2018. NAV total return for the year was 4.1% including reinvested dividends.

Crystal Amber noted, however, that its NAV growth was held back by the poor performance of security products firm De La Rue PLC and commercial vehicle rental provider Northgate PLC. Meanwhile, a key contribution to NAV improvement came from sustainable technology investor Leaf Clean Energy Co's successful litigation against power generation company Invenergy Renewables LLC.

"The period was dominated by the uncertainty around Brexit. Equities moved sideways as deal activity reduced and consumer confidence weakened," said Chair Christopher Waldron. "Given this background, the fund's NAV performance has been very encouraging."

During the year, the fund bought back 1.7 million of its own shares at an average price of 213.05 pence as part of its strategy to limit any substantial discount of its share price to NAV. Over the year, the Crystal Amber's shares traded at an average month-end discount to NAV of 7.8%. As at June 30, the shares traded at a discount of 17% to NAV.

The stock was trading 0.3% lower on Friday in London at 192.00p a share.