Liberum ups target price on Oakley Capital after 'strong' H1

Analysts at Liberum upped their target price on private equity firm Oakley Capital on Wednesday, stating the group's trading update had confirmed its "strong performance".

Oakley Capital, a corporate client of Liberum, had its price target raised from 225p to 275p after the fund manager continued to source "attractive investments" away from traditional auction processes across its three core sectors during the first half of its trading year.

"Sentiment towards the shares has improved and we expect this to continue as a result of initiatives to address the discount," said Liberum.

"The portfolio companies are demonstrating high growth (41% EBITDA growth in 2018) and we expect strong NAV growth over the medium-term."

Liberum, which kept its 'buy' rating unchanged, said OCI had "increasingly been on the front foot" following a significant improvement in NAV performance and several structural and governance improvements.

"Given the above and the positive outlook from a high-quality portfolio, we would expect the shares to re-rate from the current 25% discount to NAV," concluded the analysts.

As of 1610 BST, OCI shares were untraded on 237p.