Bahrain's Investcorp first half net profit soars on deal income

DUBAI - Bahrain-based alternative investment manager Investcorp said profits for the first half of fiscal year 2013 rose on the back of increased fee income and profitable exits at its investment portfolio.

Investcorp, which sold truck and trailer parts distributor FleetPride to TPG for over $1 billion in November, made a net profit of $39.2 million in the first half of fiscal year 2013, compared with $5.2 million a year earlier.

Fee income for the period rose 80 percent to $147.6 million, driven by strong acquisition and placement activity, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The rise in net profit was driven primarily by an increase in fee-based income that we earned mainly associated with deal activity through acquisition placement and exiting deals," the firm's Chief Financial Officer Rishi Kapoor told reporters in a conference call.

Investcorp, which previously took public luxury brands Gucci and Tiffany & Co, had $11.5 billion in assets under management as of Dec 31, 2012.

Total assets at the end of 2012 were $2.7 billion, unchanged from the previous fiscal year end, the company said.

The company, which raised a $529 million-equivalent loan aimed at refinancing debt in June last year, has no immediate plans to access the debt market again in the coming six months but remains opportunistic, Kapoor said.

Kapoor confirmed that the company is offering German insulation firm Armacell for sale but declined to give further details.

The sale of Armacell by Investcorp has attracted six bidders as interest grows in companies making energy-efficient products, two people familiar with the transaction said.

Private equity investors Charterhouse, Pamplona, Equistone, HgCapital, Goldman Sachs Private Equity as well as a U.S.-based producer of building materials have placed tentative bids, the people said, adding final bids are due in mid-March.

Investcorp may raise new money from investors in 2013 and expects its $1 billion Gulf fund to be fully invested by end-July, the president of the company's Gulf business told Reuters last week.

The company had bought U.S. information security firm FishNet Security from private equity firm Lake Capital.

(Reporting by Mirna Sleiman; Editing by Dinesh Nair)