WAM Active Limited (WAM Active) investment portfolio cited its 64 per cent average equity weighting for the group’s 16.2 per cent increase in profit for the year ending 31 December 2012 and 10.4 per cent increase for the second six-month period.
The firm achieved $1,109,373 in operating profit after tax for the six-month period.
“We are pleased to deliver an increased fully-franked dividend and continued positive returns,” WAM Active chairman Geoff Wilson said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“If the market continues to trade higher and volatility remains low, we expect a heightened level of corporate activity, such as takeovers, mergers and IPOs, over the next 12 months,” he said.
Mr Wilson explained that in late January, the Australian equity market officially entered a bull market which now sees the All Ordinaries Index trading at its highest level since the global financial crisis.
WAM Active said its equity exposure has been progressively increasing. At the end of January, the portfolio was 91.7 per cent invested.
The results follow WAM Active’s parent company, Wilson Asset Management’s (WAM Capital’s), announcement last week of an increase in its net assets following its merger with Premium Investors.
WAM Capital increased its net assets to $296 million and its shareholder base to more than 7,800 in the six months to December 31, due to its merger with Premium in December and increased investor demand, the firm said at the time.
Operating profit before tax for the half year ending December 31 reached $31,763,792, increasing from a 2011 operating loss before tax of $5,232,002, as result of WAM’s portfolio returning 14.1 per cent.
WAM Capital’s portfolio had an average equity weighting of 66.2 per cent over the results period, and provided a return of 21.7 per cent over the full year.
