Performance trumps profit says WH Soul Patts

The investment company frequently referenced as associated with M&A activity around Perpetual Limited, Washington H. Soul Pattinson has told the market it does not consider profit to be an accurate reflection of investment performance.

In doing so, it acknowledged a 49.3% decrease in in regular profit after tax to $241.3 million for the first half.

It said that it had nonetheless grown its investment portfolio to $11.5 billion and outperformed the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 2.4% pm a total return basis.

The board declared a fully-franked interim dividend of 40 cents per share.

The company’s commentary said that, as an investment house, “Soul Patts does not consider profit to be an accurate reflection of investment performance. The Key drivers of success are growth in the capital value of the portfolio and growing yield as measured by Net Cash Flow from investments”.

“Soul Patts’ active management style aims to deliver better than market returns. In 1H24, Net Asset Value (pre-tax) increased to $11.5b, and when adding back dividends paid this delivered shareholders a total return of 8.3% which outperformed the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 2.3%,” it said.

Soul Pattinson chief executive and managing director, Todd Barlow said the firm’s investment team transacted $2.4 billion in value during the six month period “which is equivalent to two-thirds of the transaction volumes in the prior 12 months”.

“The market environment has provided many opportunities, as reflected in our $1.6b of capital allocated across listed equities and private investments,” he said.