According to Platinum’s annual financial report posted to the Australian Securities Exchange, the firm’s net assets on a pre-tax basis increased by 42.3 per cent for the year, outperforming the MSCI World Index, which returned 30.5 per cent over the period.
“The strong results achieved in the last 12 months are a tribute to the skill and expertise of the investment manager, so I wish to express my appreciation of the outstanding contribution made by Kerr Neilson, Andrew Clifford and their team over the last year,” Platinum chairman Bruce Phillips stated in the report.
The company paid a fully-franked dividend of five cents for the end of the year, on top of a two cents per share interim dividend given in March.
Platinum Capital Limited also made a strong pre-tax operating profit of $74.8 million, which it attributed “to unrealised gains associated with historical buying of neglected stocks at attractive prices”.
The company announced it is terminating the share buy-back programme that had been in operation since April last year because “it had achieved its main objective of limiting the discount between the company’s share price and its underlying NAV [net asset value] per share”.
Going forward, Platinum Capital Limited identified “reassuring” signals from the United States and said even Europe is showing signs of bottoming out.
“After some strong runs, it is possible that investors cool over the northern summer and fret about the speed of growth in China, the social resistance to change in Europe, notably France, and the sustainability of profits from sectors that have been market favourites for some while,” the firm stated.
“We believe these will be mere distraction and should be seen as offering opportunities to buy fine businesses.”
