John Laing Infrastructure Fund boasts year of solid progress

John Laing Infrastructure Fund issued its results for the year ended 31 December on Friday, declaring a dividend of 3.57p per share for the last six months of the year, up 2.5%.

The FTSE 250 firm said dividends of 6.96p per share were paid in 2017, representing a yield of 5.6% on the closing share price at 31 December of 123.2p.

It said its net asset value of £1.235bn represented a NAV per share of 124.6p, and NAV total return of 9.5% for the year.

The company’s portfolio value of £1.379bn was up 13.3% year-on-year, with underlying portfolio growth of 9.11%, which the board said was ahead of growth arising from discount rate unwind.

Investments totalled £149.8m during the year, including two follow-on interests and interests in four new projects.

Cash distributed from the portfolio was £111.4m, and total shareholder return reached 76.4% since launch in November 2010, equating to an 8.3% compound annualised return.

The board said a proposal was to be put to shareholders in May to move the fund’s tax domicile to the UK, and become a UK investment trust.

“Despite a somewhat challenging background for its asset class, JLIF continued to make steady progress during 2017, generating strong portfolio yields and underlying portfolio growth,” said chairman David MacLellan.

“During 2018, the company and its investment adviser will continue to focus on protecting and enhancing the portfolio as well as selectively seeking new investment opportunities in line with the company's strategy.”