Electra Private Equity keeping powder dry

Electra Private Equity, which has stakes in insurer esure and in holiday parks operator Park Resorts, fell behind its benchmark, the FTSE All-Share index, in the three months to the end of June.

The net asset value (NAV) per share of the group rose 0.9% in the quarter to £23.82p but the stock price declined 4.3%, slightly more than the 3.7% decrease in the FTSE All Share.

Electra invested a total of £10m in the reporting period, with the largest investment in the period being a £7m purchase of additional shares in Allflex Holdings, the manufacturer and distributor of plastic and electronic animal identification tags. Realisations over the same period totalled £14.8m, of which £4.8m represented proceeds received from the partial loan repayment in esure and £4.2m represented the final instalment in respect of the disposal of Capital Safety Group.

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Electra says it has about £440m in firepower for future investments but in the current climate deal completion has been slow.

The group's Managing Partner, Hugh Mumford said: "Whilst this has been a quiet period for deal completion, our origination efforts are undiminished and we are seeing the majority of deals in our market. We remain cautious, however, as, in our view, prices have yet to reflect the uncertain macro environment."

At 9:23 the shares had risen 0.5%.

BS