AUM was down a touch by 0.5% in FY24 (1 Oct 23 - 30 Sep 24) to £37.2bn. Net outflows totalled £5.8bn, largely offset by a positive investment performance of +£5.3bn and a contribution of +£0.3bn from the acquisition of fixed-income specialist Absalon Capital Management in Q4.
With average AUM also slightly down, revenue fell 4.7% to £170.1m. Adjusted operating costs were firmly under control and decreased by 2% from £120.3m to £117.4m, helped also by Impax’s incentive-based remuneration model. Adjusted operating profit fell 9.3% to £52.7m, a still-solid operating margin of 31.0% (FY23: 32.6%) and slightly higher than forecast (£52.2m).
Impax generated £49.2m of cash from operations (FY23: £36.7m) with a strong balance sheet and robust cash reserves of £90.8m (FY23: £87.7m), despite paying £36m in dividends. It has no debt. The full-year dividend is unchanged at 27.6p, a yield of 8.6% on the prior closing share price.
It has been a tough two years re flows for sustainable funds, active funds, and for Impax, with its growth trajectory flattening during this period (although AUM is still 146% higher than five years ago: £37.2bn v £15.1bn at the of FY19). However, we think there are pending triggers for inflows to return.
We reduce our fundamental valuation to 700p per share (from 750p) but note this is still more than double the closing share price.
