Caledonia Investments ups divi as annual NAV rises

28th May 2014 08:12

London-listed investment firm Caledonia Investments reported a dip in annual profits in the year ended March 31st, but raised its dividend after a decent increase in net asset value (NAV) during the period.Pre-tax profit for the year fell to £180.8m, down from £204.6m previously, as total revenues fell to £193.1m from £220.5m, mainly due to lower gains on fair value investments.Nevertheless, the company reported a NAV per share of 2,593p, up 12.5% on the year before. The annual dividend was lifted by 4% to 49.1p per share."This is a strong performance in a year in which we undertook significant activity across our portfolio," said Chief Executive Will Wyatt.The company made a total of £332m of investments during the year and realised £252m from sold assets."We continued to take advantage of opportunities to reduce some of our larger holdings to maintain the right balance of risk across the portfolio," Wyatt said.He said that the company's portfolio remains "cautiously positioned" in the current economic climate with recent gains on stock markets unlikely to be repeated to the same extent this year or the next. Wyatt highlighted the economic recovery in Western economies, whilst saying that the recent slowdown in Asian and other developing economics has brought "valuations back to levels where we now feel comfortable to deploy capital in these regions".The stock was up 0.8% at 2,177.12p by 08:22 on Wednesday.BC