Financial services investment company Somers Ltd yesterday announced a net loss of $6.6 million for the six months to the end of March.

However, the parent company of Bermuda Commercial Bank and part owner of several businesses in Britain and Australia, was still able to raise its dividend by more than 10 per cent, reflecting its board’s confidence in its investee firms’ performance.

A major reason behind the net loss was investment losses of $4.1 million in the year to date, compared to around half that figure — $2.2 million — in the same six-month period the previous year.

The six-month report said: “Investment gains and losses result from changes in the valuation of the company’s investments and the year-to-date loss was due to reductions in the value of our holding in Ascot Lloyd following a reduction in the company’s maintainable earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.”

Somers’ total assets stood at $337.3 million at the end of the first quarter, down from $346.9 million at the end of September 2016.

Somers owns Bermuda Commercial Bank and has a 59 per cent stake in Australian firm Homeloans Ltd, and a 62.5 per cent holding in the UK’s Waverton Investment Management.

Other investments include 51 per cent of Ascot Lloyd Holdings in the UK, a 57 per cent share of Bermudian property management and investment company West Hamilton Holdings, a 23 per cent investment in Ireland’s Merrion Capital Holdings and a 75 per stake in Britain’s Stockdale Securities Ltd.

Warren McLeland, chairman of Somers, said: “The investee companies continue to perform strongly with excellent financial results, in particular at Homeloans and Waverton.

“During the quarter, the company invested a further $2.3 million in Ascot Lloyd to fund a portion of the deferred consideration owed by Ascot Lloyd on one of its recent acquisitions.”

Mr McLeland added that both the UK pound and Australian dollar had increased against the US dollar in the first quarter of 2017, which had improved Somers’ overall valuation as 59 per cent of its holdings are in pounds or Australian dollars.

He said: “The board of directors is pleased to recommend an interim dividend of 20 cents per share, a small increase on last year’s interim dividend. This reflects the performance of the underlying investee companies and the company’s future prospects.”

And Mr McLeland added: “We were pleased to recently announce the company’s bonus warrant issue, the proceeds of which will enable the company to materially reduce its debt.

“We therefore look forward to the rest of the year with cautious optimism.”