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Have Foresight, it will pay dividends

Traded on: Main market Ticker: FSG Contact: foresightgroup.eu or 020 3667 8100

SMOKING and obesity cost the NHS almost £10billion a year and the burden is expected to rise still further, as growing numbers of people eat too much fast food and exercise too little.

Bolton-based ABL was set up to help address this problem across the North West, offering advice and support around weight loss, wellbeing and smoking. In 2018, FORESIGHT GROUP HOLDINGS acquired ABL, investing £3million in the business so it could grow and develop. The company now works with more than 32,000 people, helping them to become healthier and freeing up capacity in the NHS along the way.

Foresight is an unusual company. It has invested in around 250 businesses across the UK, backing firms in cities such as Newcastle, Liverpool

and Glasgow. But it is also a big backer of renewable energy infrastructure, funding more than 300 projects worldwide, including forest land in Wales, offshore wind in Italy and hydroelectric systems in Scotland. Only last week, the group threw its weight behind a huge green hydrogen plant in Germany, designed to power thousands of homes and businesses.

Foresight is run by Bernard Fairman, a dynamic 72-year-old, who founded the business nearly 40 years ago and floated it on the stock exchange in February 2021 at £4.20. Midas recommended the shares two months later at £4.25 and today they are £4.70. But they deserve to move higher, as the firm is well run, it is invested in fast-growing companies and industries and offers shareholders attractive and rising dividends.

Fairman divides his business into three subsidiaries – infrastructure, private equity and Foresight Capital Management, which invests in listed renewable energy firms.

Each of the three divisions operates a range of funds, open to individual and institutional investors. When the business floated, there were £7.2billion of assets under management and Fairman was targeting £10 billion by 2023. A trading update this month showed the company is growing considerably faster. Assets under management are approaching £12.5billion and Fairman is determined to keep up the pace, expanding the infrastructure business into America and investing in more small businesses here and in Europe. Australia is a focus too, after Foresight acquired Australian specialist Infrastructure Capital last summer.

Foresight can seem complicated but in essence the group invests in firms with strong, long-term growth prospects. Fairman has done everything he promised and more since floating two years ago, including a commitment to pay out 60 per cent of its profits in dividends. Brokers forecast a 19.8p payout for the year to March, rising to 22.4p in 2024 and over 27p the following year.

Wealth & Personal Finance

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2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

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