Literacy Capital PLC on Tuesday celebrated a strong quarterly performance, after seeing increased returns on the sale of one of its largest assets.

Literacy is a London-based trust focused on long-term investments in private UK businesses.

At June 30, the firm’s net asset value per share was 488.5 pence, up from 467.3p on March 31, and from 345.7p a year prior. For the three months ended June 30, Literacy’s net asset value return was positive 4.5%.

‘Trading across the portfolio in [second quarter] was largely positive. There were signs in two businesses, that traded very strongly in 2022, of demand cooling from post-Covid highs. Out of prudence, these two companies were marked down in the quarter,’ said Richard Pindar, chief executive officer of Literacy’s investment manager.

He added: ‘The largest contribution to this performance in the quarter was from the uplift on the transaction announced today. The sale of this investment is further validation of [Literacy]’s model and investment strategy. ’

Separately on Tuesday, Literacy said it had sold one of its larger investments in full, generating a ‘substantial’ amount of cash to fund future investments.

The firm sold the assets - which it didn’t name - for more than £20 million in cash, representing a premium of over 50% to its March 31 carrying value.

It said the cash proceeds would be sufficient to repay its revolving credit facility in full, and to allow for further new investments.

Literacy Capital shares were trading 5.3% lower at 464.00 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.

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