Shares digital

Directors of Intermediate Capital (ICP) gave strong backing to the group’s recent rights issue. Managing directors Paul Piper and Thomas Attwood invested £496,236 and £414,782 respectively in the fund raising, which was also well supported by other board members.

The group, which provides debt financing for private equity deals, has been a beneficiary of the bursting of the credit bubble. In the three months to 31 December the company arranged funding of £566 million for ten new investments. This compared with a success rate of £898 million in the six months to 30 September.

The rationale of the £175 million rights issue was very simple, to provide financial firepower to exploit what the company sees as a growing range of ‘very attractive opportunities on great terms’.

The company has a strong record with profits growing from £53.5 million in 2002/3 to £170 million last year. At £15.36 the shares are selling on a PE of less than 12, falling to 10.7 next year, while offering a well-covered prospective yield of 4.2%.

Shares says: The shares have done well yet remain inexpensive given the opportunities open to the company.