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Infrastructure investor International Public Partnerships reported a rise in net assets underpinned by investments that generated 'strong' cash flows.
For the year ended 31 December, net asset value rose 10.3% to £2.4bn on-year and NAV per share rose to 150.6p from 148.1p and income rose 3.5% to £173.5m.
But pre-tax profit before fell to £137.8m from £138.1m on-year, pressured by a 19.8% rise in expenses.
The full-year dividend was increased by 2.6% to 7.18p a share.
Looking ahead, the company said it would target 2020 and 2021 full-year dividends of 7.36p and 7.55p a share, respectively.
'While at this stage no one knows the impact that Covid-19 may have in the future including in the countries referred to above, the view of the investment adviser is that while it may impact on some infrastructure investment activity in the short to medium term, then in the medium to long term there is a likelihood of an enhanced need for health and other community protection infrastructure,' the company said.
'As a generalisation the immediate response of central banks to the Covid-19 pandemic has been to reduce interest rates. Other things being equal, this might be expected to increase the attractiveness of revenues streams typically derived from the assets in the company's portfolio,' it added.