Fund firm ICG gets full-year pretax profit boost as assets rise

LONDON, May 22(Reuters) - London-listed specialist fund manager Intermediate Capital Group on Tuesday posted 29 percent rise in full-year pretax profit at its fund management business, buoyed by a strong rise in its assets under management.

The company, which focuses on less liquid debt and equity investments, said total assets under management during the year to the end of March rose over 20 percent to 28.7 billion pounds ($38.52 billion), from 23.83 billion pounds.

An 21 percent increase in the fees charged to clients to invest in its funds helped pretax profit grow to 95.3 million pounds from 74 million pounds, it said in a statement.

That, in turn, helped underpin an 11 percent increase in the total dividend for the year.

"The market environment continues to be supportive of both our existing and new strategies and we see strong, ongoing demand from investors, as well as attractive investment opportunities for our funds", Chief Executive Benoit Durteste said.

"This momentum has continued into the new financial year," he added. ($1 = 0.7452 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jessop in LONDON; Additonal reporting by Rahul B in BENGALURU, editing by Sinead Cruise)