Bridgepoint shares surge on swelling revenue and managed assets post-IPO
During its first year on the London Stock Exchange, Bridgepoint’s revenues have grown more than 40 per cent.
The private equity giant listed in September last year in a highly anticipated £2bn float.
The London-headquartered firm has also seen assets under management swell nearly 24 per cent to €32.9bn (£27.3bn) in the year to 31 December.
Shares surged nearly 14 per cent to 330p per share by early afternoon.
Bridgepoint’s pre-tax profit increased nearly a third from £48.5m to £62.6m, while operating profit jumped over 40 per cent to £70.3m in the 12-month period.
Executive chairman William Jackson hailed the annual results, which came in “head of the expectations we set at the time of our IPO”.
The private equity firm had its capital deployment return to normal levels across all asset classes over the year, after significant Covid-19 disruption, added Jackson.
“Looking forward, whilst we expect market volatility to continue,” the chairman continued. “We are excited by the medium term strategic growth prospects for the group with our business development plans continuing to evolve post IPO and we remain confident in Bridgepoint’s ability to deliver strong returns for our fund investors and our shareholders alike.”
Managing director of financial at Edison Group, Rob Murphy said the sturdy performance was driven by the group’s two strategies – private equity and private debt.
“Private equity achieved strong progress with the group’s main private equity funds committing €1.9bn to new investments and returning €2.9bn to its fund investors,” he explained. “In a reflection of the group’s ongoing growth, Bridgepoint Europe fund investments generated 24 per cent year-on-year revenue growth and EBITDA growth of 31 per cent.”