Temple Bar has released its results for 2013. Over the year the total return on NAV was 31.4%, well ahead of the total return on the FTSE Al-Share Index of 20.8% – a good result for the company’s manager, Alastair Mundy.
TMPL has also increased its dividend by 3% despite a fall in distributable income over the period, Temple Bar has used a small portion of its revenue reserves to finance the increase. The Chairman’s statement attributes the fall in income to a dearth of attractive investment opportunities amongst higher yielding equities and a change in the accounting treatment of their bond holdings.
TMPL has put new long-term borrowing in place via a £50m 15 year loan with a fixed coupon of 4.05% – this was done via a private placement with Prudential Insurance Company of America. The Board have said that the loan was taken out to secure long-term funding at an attractive rate rather than from a desire to gear up the portfolio and this is reflected in the company’s year end gearing net of cash of 2%.