Trading Update
City of London Investment Group PLC
11 June 2007
For release at 0700h, 11 June 2007
CITY OF LONDON INVESTMENT GROUP PLC
('City of London' or 'the Group')
TRADING UPDATE FOR THE YEAR TO 31 MAY 2007
City of London Investment Group PLC (AIM: CLIG), a leading emerging market and
closed end fund asset management group, today provides a trading update for the
financial year ended 31 May 2007.
The Group's funds under management (FUM) increased by 38% during the year to
US$3.792 billion at 31 May 2007 (US$2.748 billion at the end of May 2006).
For the year to 31 May 2007, City of London expects that pre-tax profits will be
approximately 41% higher at £7.3 million (2006: £5.2 million) and that profits
after tax of £2.4 million will be approximately £4.9 million (2006: £2.9 million
after AIM admission costs of £0.5 million and tax of £1.8 million).
The Group's dividend policy is based on paying dividends to shareholders that
are twice covered by earnings and to pay one third of the annual total as an
interim dividend and two thirds as a final dividend. In March 2007, City of
London paid an interim dividend of 3p per share, implying a final dividend of 6p
under the policy adopted by the Group. In the event, it is the Board's
intention to recommend a final dividend of 7p per share as a result of the
financial performance of the Group in the second half of the financial year.
Notwithstanding City of London's performance over the past year it is the
Group's intention over the next year, subject to market conditions, to continue
to grow and diversify the business organically. Progress in the US is
anticipated regarding the equity business and the intention is to focus
resources in the area of marketing the Natural Resource fund. Additionally, two
new spokes will be added to the Group's Dublin based OEIC, The World Fund. These
are Natural Resources and Emerging Markets Yield.
With regard to the traditional emerging markets closed end fund business,
further growth is expected from winning new mandates, particularly in Europe, as
a result of the successful focus upon outperformance relative to benchmarks.
Another area of diversification and focus over the next year will be regarding
closed end funds that provide global exposure.
Financial discipline is being maintained. As a result of tight control of
overhead, the cost-income ratio, excluding variable commissions and
profit-share, reduced from 38% to 34%, and the portion of gross income which is
carried to the bottom line (pre-tax) increased from 37% to 40%.
City of London expects to announce full year results for the year to 31 May 2007
on 17 September 2007.
Summary and Trading Update
31.05.06 31.05.07
Funds under Management (at period end) $2.8bn $3.8bn
Turnover (plus investment income) £14.2m £18.4m
Administrative expenses £9.5m £11.1m
Profit before tax £4.7m £7.3m
Profit after tax £2.9m £4.9m
EPS: Basic 13.5p 19.9p
Diluted 11.7p 17.5p
Financials - P&L Account
Year to 31 May
£'000 2006 2007
Fee income 14,119 18,317
Interest & other 109 230
Finder's commission (2,180) (2,723)
Custody & Administration (523) (613)
Total net income 11,525 15,211
Costs:
Human resources 2,588 2,998
Premises 220 217
Communications & IT 617 645
Business development 229 283
General 501 583
Total costs 4,155 4,726
Operating profit 7,370 10,485
AIM listing costs 483 0
Profit-share 2,160 3,153
Pre-tax profit 4,727 7,332
Tax (1,784) (2,478)
Post-tax profit 2,943 4,854
Dividends (2,283) (736)*
Retained 660 4,118
* Shows interim dividend only; final dividend to be approved.
-ends-
City of London Investment Group is today hosting a seminar on the background to
its results, focusing on the macroeconomic outlook for emerging markets, current
trends in corporate governance in the closed end funds sector and City of
London's approach and strategy, at the offices of Tavistock Communications, 131
Finsbury Pavement, London EC2A 1NT. The seminar will commence at 1000h, finish
at 1300h and will conclude with an informal discussion over lunch. The output
from the seminar will be available upon request from client.servicing@citlon.com
(tel: 020 7860 8329).
For further information, please visit www.citlon.co.uk or contact:
Doug Allison (Finance Director) Simon Hudson / John West / Andrew Dunn
City of London Investment Group PLC Tavistock Communications
Tel: 020 7860 8347 Tel: 020 7920 3150
NOTES TO EDITORS
City of London is an asset management group whose principal activity is
providing emerging market asset management products and services predominantly
to institutional investors via its principal operating company City of London
Investment Management Company Limited. The Group is based in the UK and also has
offices in the US and Singapore. Clients include some of the US's leading blue
chip institutions and endowment funds.
With total funds under management of approximately US$3.8 billion, the Group
manages several Open Ended Funds as well as a number of segregated accounts. The
Group's fund mandates are mainly in emerging markets, although the Group has
more recently diversified its asset management product portfolio by the launch
of a natural resources fund and has also seeded three new funds: a global fund,
a frontier fund and an emerging markets yield fund. The Group seeks to provide
capital growth for clients through active country allocation and stock
selection.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange