Investcorp plans to double dividend after profits grow 56%

Investcorp Bank, the Bahrain-based alternative investment firm managing US$10.5 billion, plans to double its dividend after full-year profit climbed 56 per cent amid a jump in fee income.

The board recommended paying $15 a share for the financial year ending June 30, compared with $7.50 a year earlier, as well as a 12 percent dividend on preference shares, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Full-year profit advanced to $104.9 million from $67.4m a year earlier as fees from managing investment deals more than doubled to $193.4m, it said.

The dividend "is not a one-off," chief financial officer Rishi Kapoor said in Dubai. "We feel that we are on a good trajectory to continue to certainly maintain that higher level of dividend and potentially even grow it." Investcorp, which invests in private equity, funds of hedge funds and property, paid clients and itself $2.1bn last year after asset sales. It completed eight new deals, such as buying a controlling stake in oil and gas services provider Hydrasun in a deal valued at as much as $300m.

The company raised $1.5bn for investments from clients during the year, more than double that of the previous year and the highest since the 2008 financial crisis, according to the statement. That included $844m of investments from institutional investors in hedge funds.

* Bloomberg News