LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Early-stage venture capital provider BP Marsh updated the market on trading for the year ended 31 January on Tuesday, reporting that its portfolio of 18 investments had shown resilience, despite the ongoing uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The AIM-traded firm said that as the effects of Covid-19 continued, it had worked with management teams across its investments to ensure stability.

Emphasis was placed on having adequate liquidity within each business, and on regular reforecasting, with various scenarios applied.

One of its key financial objectives is the delivery of long-term growth to shareholders via the regular increase in its net asset value.

The group's interim results to 31 July showed an increase in net asset value to £142.6m, producing a 4.8% return to shareholders including the dividend for the six month period.

B.P. Marsh said it remained positive regarding its ongoing performance.

As at 31 January, the group had £0.7m in cash, having drawn down £1m from its £3m loan facility with Brian Marsh Enterprises (BME), a company of which chairman, Brian Marsh was director and sole shareholder.

Currently, due to the receipt of income post year-end, the group said it had £1.3m in cash and access to a further £2m from the loan facility with BME.

Income for the year ended 31 January was about 15% lower than the preceding year, primarily due to receiving lower dividend income from the investment portfolio due to Covid-19, as the portfolio companies maximised liquidity.

However, due to cost mitigation, the firm said it was expecting its underlying profit excluding portfolio revaluations to be at or above the prior year's £0.8m.

As it previously stated, the company has a strategy for undertaking small market buy-backs of shares at times when the discount to net asset value, based on the most recently announced net asset value, was greater than 15%.

BP Marsh said it expected to report its full year results for the 12 months ended 31 January on 8 June.

At 1014 GMT, shares in B.P. Marsh & Partners were up 3.72% at 275.9p.

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