Oakley Capital Investments

Ahead of its interim results to June, AIM-traded investment vehicle Oakley Capital Investments says it expects to report a significant increase in net asset value.

Oakley Capital both invests alongside and owns the majority of the Oakley Private Equity fund, enabling investors in the AIM-traded vehicle to benefit from NAV growth within the private equity fund. In its latest trading update, Oakley Capital, headed by co-founder Peter Dubens, predicts Net Asset Value (NAV) rose to between 143p and 147p by the end of June, a significant uplift from 125p a year ago.

Encouragingly, Oakley is seeing growth across its portfolio of investments and Dubens says that this year, his team has come across 'a number of potentially interesting investment opportunities', which it is 'currently evaluating'. Dubens attributes the fund's success to Oakley's investment style, informing Growth Company Investor that 'we are very cautious acquirers and tend to look at businesses that have a structural problem inside of them, and in which we can see the possibility of a positive return'.

The private equity fund’s holdings include German price comparison site Verivox and server computer operator Host Europe. Dubens says Oakley has profited through its focus on growth hotspots. 'We like anything to do with the internet,' he explains, 'and also financial services, areas which we see value in’. A number of Oakley's portolio companies are growing with the help of acquisitions, with the largest, Host Europe, having recently purchased German server Vanager in a €2.36m deal.

We believe that Oakley Capital is currently undervalued, since its shares, first recommended here in February 2009 at 62p, are trading at a discount of around 20% to projected NAV of 143p to 147p. Oakley should have further to go and it is worth increasing existing holdings.