Perpetual Equity Investment (PIC) has announced strong growth in net profit after tax (NPAT) amounting to $31.8 million, which was up 318 per cent on FY16 for the year ending June 30, 2017, and said the results have been driven by disciplined investing and by the company’s capacity to invest up to 25 per cent of the portfolio in global equities.
Despite of market uncertainty which, according to PIC’s chairman Nancy Fox became “the new normal”, the company also managed to bring total dividends for the full financial year to 4.7 cents per share fully franked, which represented a 68 per cent increase counting year-on-year.
PIC’s portfolio manager, Vince Pezzullo, said the investment returns were strengthened by the strategy based on diversification outside of the Australian equity market, which provided a concentrated exposure to the financials and materials sectors, and the opportunity to benefit from global growth sectors such as healthcare and information technology.
Deutsche Boerse AG, ICON Plc and Bank of America Corporation were the three examples of global stocks that have contributed to positive performance, the company said.
“Over the year the portfolio had an average global exposure of 18 per cent, which is reflective of the opportunities we’ve identified abroad,” Pezzullo said.
“PIC’s key differentiator in the market – capacity to invest up to 25 per cent of the portfolio in global equities – has the ability to enhance returns and better manage market risk.”
According to Perpetual, the PIC portfolio delivered investors an investment return after management fees and operating expenses of 17.4 per cent, outperforming the benchmark return by 3.6 per cent.
