Sterling Investments Limited (SIL) reported on Monday last (August 19), an unaudited net profit of $57.1 million for the six-month period ended June 2019, an increase of 10.4 per cent when compared with the $51.8 million recorded in the corresponding period last year.

According to the company’s report to shareholders, SIL’s profit growth was influenced by increases in interest income and unrealised gains in the portfolio.

“Unrealised foreign exchange gains for the six months ended June 2019 totalled $28.8 million compared to $38.4 million in June 2018,” the company stated in the report.

“The intrinsic value of the company’s assets continues to grow and at the end of the June 2019 quarter the stock units had a book value of $3.22,” the report stated.

Total assets for the period under review amounted to $1.49 billion, an increase of 19.9 per cent from the $1.25 billion recorded for the similar period in 2018.

SIL indicated that this reflects growth in the company’s investment securities, which increased by 20.3 per cent over the same period in 2018. This was mainly funded by the proceeds of the rights issue held in January of this year.

The investment holding company, which is managed by Sterling Asset Management, for the six-month period recorded a net interest income of $39.5 million, a 7.2 per cent increase compared with the $36.9 million recorded for the corresponding period in 2018.

“The company has effectively used low-cost funding to purchase attractively yielding assets, thereby increasing the return to its investors; this is reflected in the company’s robust net interest margin of 85.7 per cent,” the report stated.

“The company has successfully taken advantage of intermittent market sell-offs to purchase undervalued, high quality securities, as a result, gains on sale of debt securities totalled $1,842,027, up more than 250 per cent from the corresponding period in 2018.”

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