John Laing Infrastructure Fund eyes new acquistions

The portfolio of John Laing Infrastructure Fund grew in value during the first quarter, while cash flows remained in line with expectations.

The value of the group's investments by the end of March was £413.3m, up 2.1% over the first three months of the year, while the net asset value (NAV) had reached £435.2m, excluding £12.7m set aside for dividend payments. That dividend, of 3p per share, will be paid out on May 11th.

NAV per share at the end of March on an ex-dividend basis eased to 104.6p (106.1p cum-div) from 104.6p at the end of 2011.

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Over the the first three months of 2012 John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF), which invests in public private partnership (PPP) projects, paid out £30.5m for stakes in three social housing private finance initiative (PFI) projects while also scooping up the remaining stake in the North East Fire and Rescue (NEFRA) PPP project from Shepherd Construction for £1.2m, taking its total holding to 100%.

In April JLIF issued £31m worth of new shares to replace debt and provide ammunition for further acquisitions. The group has drawn down £7.4m of its banking facility, which represents 1.7% of the value of JLIF's total assets as at the end of March.

The company does not hedge the balance sheet value of its portfolio, but the board has decided to hedge its portfolio income to mitigate exchange rate volatility; accordingly, it has hedged 80% of the Canadian dollar income during 2012.

Chairman, Paul Lester noted that the UK government has announced a fat pipeline of future infrastructure projects, of which it expects almost two-thirds to be privately financed.

"The fast moving secondary market continues to present many opportunities to JLIF and following the recent placing of additional shares, we are in a strong position to be able to take advantage of these opportunities as they arise," Lester said.

The UK government continues to focus on economic infrastructure, which naturally promotes an environment of recycling of equity from primary market participants as they engage in the new programmes the government is procuring, the company statement observed. The UK's international counterparts generally continue to favour social focussed infrastructure, for example, healthcare and education, which JLIF said gives the fund the opportunity to continue to grow its overseas portfolio.

JLIF shares were down very slightly (0.09%) at 08:31.

BS