HgCAPITAL TRUST PLC (LON: HGT) KEY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2019
- NAV per share of £2.42, a total return of 13.9%.
- Share price total return of 22.5% to 30 June 2019.
- Interim dividend of 1.8 pence per share (2018 interim dividend of 1.6 pence per share).
- Strong revenue and EBITDA growth of 26% and 35% respectively across the top 20 investments (88% of the portfolio) over the last twelve months.
- Valuation multiple (EV/EBITDA) of 19.5x and net debt to EBITDA ratio of 6.3x for the top 20 investments.
- £65 million of cash returned to the Company and £107 million invested on behalf of the Company.
- Increased focus on improving liquidity in the Company’s shares, with a ten for one share-split in May 2019.
- Share issue in June 2019 raised £63 million (after all expenses) to fund future commitments to Hg funds and further co-investment in Hg portfolio companies.
- Outperformed the FTSE All-share over one, three, five, ten and twenty-year periods
- Over the last twenty years, Shareholders have seen a Total Return of 1,429%
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY OVER THE PERIOD
- Investments in the period include Transporeon Group, one of the world’s leading cloud-based logistics platforms, team.blue, a leader in mass hosting services for SMEs across Europe, and Litera Microsystems, a leading provider of end-to-end document lifecycle solutions to the legal and life sciences industries worldwide.
- Foundry sold to Roper Technologies at a 79% uplift to book value delivering a 2.1x investment multiple and a 22% gross IRR over the investment period.
- Continued M&A activity across the portfolio.
YEAR TO DATE TO 31 AUGUST 2019
- Pro-forma NAV per share of £2.45, primarily reflecting unrealised currency movements since period end and the realisation of Register.
- Share price of £2.17, market capitalisation of £872 million, YTD performance of 23%.
- Pro-forma liquid resources post-completion of all announced transactions and the proposed dividend payable in October 2019, are £166 million (17% of 31 August pro-forma NAV).
- Pro-forma outstanding commitments of £342 million (35% of 31 August pro-forma NAV). We expect these to be drawn down over the next two years.
Hg’S OUTLOOK
- It has been another strong period of performance for the Company with the underlying businesses continuing to see robust trading performance underpinning confidence in the ongoing growth of the strong and defensive portfolio.
- Hg continues to selectively invest in “sweet-spot” software and service businesses in areas or ‘clusters’ where we have many years of deep knowledge.
- Highly focused on making further accretive bolt‑on acquisitions into our portfolio companies.
- A focus on operational improvement continues to drive performance and deliver significant network benefits.
- We expect to see further liquidity events over the next twelve months through both exits and refinancings.
Strong earnings, realisations at uplifts to book value and supporting the management teams of the underlying businesses will continue to drive value for shareholders in HgCapital Trust plc
Roger Mountford, Chairman of HG Capital Trust PLC, commented:
“Over the twelve months to 30 June 2019, the top 20 companies, that make up 88% of our portfolio by value, reported sales growth of 26% and EBITDA growth of 35%. These are the strongest trading figures we have ever reported and evidence the quality of the businesses we own.”
