Bridgepoint announces 'strong' full-year profit

Bridgepoint reported "strong" full-year underlying profit growth, alongside a record amount of capital returned to clients.

For his part, chief executive officer Raoul Hughes described the medium-term prospects for private markets "exciting" and reiterated a goal to more than double its assets under management over the coming five to six years to $200bn.

At period end, Bridgepoint's AuM stood at $75.6bn and the fee paying AuM at €38.7bn.

The private equity outfit also reported a 51.9% jump in total pro-forma underlying operating income to reach £542.5m.

That tally included a full year of activity at US infrastructure investor Energy Capital Partners, the acquisition of which closed in August.

Also in pro-forma underlying terms, profit before tax jumped 83.4% to £249.8m.

On a reported basis on the other hand, profit after tax came in at £69.1m, versus £70.7m one year before, for basic earnings per share of 8.0p and 8.7p, respectively.

A record €8.5bn was returned in 2024 to fund investors.

Management added that transaction volumes were increasing and pointed to "good" near-term visibility on several further exits for 2025, two-thirds of which were expected to materialise during the back half of the year.

The 'next cycle' fundraising target was raised from €20bn to €24bn and guided towards an EBITDA margin of 52-55% over 2025/26.

The company proposed a final dividend of 4.6p.