Mercia Asset Management on Tuesday said its pretax profit for fiscal 2023 dropped despite a rise in revenue as it booked heavier administrative expenses as well as losses and lower fair value movements on its investments.
The regional investment manager posted 2.4 million pounds ($3.0 million) in pretax profit of for the year ended March 31 from GBP27.4 million.
Revenue rose to GBP25.9 million from GBP23.2 million, the London-listed group said. However, it realized a GBP800,000 loss on the sale of direct investments from a GBP9.9 million gain, and its fair value movements in direct investments fell to GBP1.2 million from GBP11.4 million, it added.
The group’s assets under management stood at GBP1.44 billion at March 31, compared with GBP959 million a year prior, it said.
It proposed an final dividend of 0.53 pence per share, bringing the total payout for the year to 0.86 pence, up from the previous year’s 0.80 pence.
“Based on our physical presence across the U.K. and continued improvement in both the quality and volume of investment opportunities, we have set an ambitious target of increasing capital deployment to a record level of GBP250million in FY24,” Chief Executive Mark Payton said.
Write to Elena Vardon at [email protected]
