Ruffer Investment Co Ltd on Thursday reported a sharp decline in profit for 2023, in line with the firm’s previous warnings of ‘bleak’ trading conditions.

Ruffer is a London-based investment management company.

Pretax profit for the period was £9.6 million, down 81% from £49.4 million a year prior.

As at December 31, Ruffer’s NAV per share was 285.52p, down from 285.78p at June 30.

For the six months ended December 31, Ruffer’s net asset value total return was 0.6%, compared to 4.8% in the half-year to December 2022.

Earnings per share were 2.42p for the period, down 83% from 14.29p a year prior.

Total income was £15.6 million, down 72% from £55.0 million.

Ruffer’s dividend was 1.65p per share for the six months, up from 1.25p a year before.

The company separately declared an interim dividend of 2.0 pence.

Ruffer said that a key performance detractor was the yen, which weakened 12% versus the sterling over the six months, costing the portfolio 1.8%.

The company’s commodities portfolio also performed poorer than expected, which Ruffer said was not helped by a ‘disappointing’ Chinese economic recovery post-Covid.

In a January trading update, Ruffer said that 2023 had been ‘the worst’ in the company’s 30-year history, and warned of a ‘bleak’ outlook for equities going forward.

Looking ahead, Ruffer said that inflation volatility remains a key concern.

Shares in Ruffer were down 0.4% at 262.51 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.

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