London Finance & Investment Group PLC on Friday reported its interim profit declined by a third, reflecting its exposure to the stock market.
The UK-based investment finance and management company said its pretax profit dropped by 33% to £561,000 for the first half to December 31 from £848,000 in the prior year.
Net assets per share per share rose by 14% to 63.2 pence as at December 31, compared to 55.5 pence the same date a year prior.
London Finance & Investment Group declared an interim dividend of 0.55 pence, or 1.256 rand cents, the same as the 2020 payout.
Over the period, the company sold 1.5 million shares in Finsbury Food and made some changes to the general portfolio investments, realising cash of £2.8 million and net profits of £1.5 million compared to the cost of these investments.
The value of the general portfolio increased by 6.3% compared with increases of 4.6% and 6.0% in the FTSE 100 index and the FTSEurofirst 300 index respectively, over the half year.
As at December 31, London Finance & Investment Group held two strategic investments: Western Selection PLC and Finsbury Food Group PLC.
The company expects to see a rotation out of growth and tech stocks and into value stocks, which should benefit its portfolio positioning.
‘We remain exposed to general market movements and the overall direction of the market in the short term remains unclear,’ it said.
Shares in the company were untraded on Friday, last traded at 38.75 pence in London, while its Johannesburg shares were also untraded at R 7.00.
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