Somers Ltd reported a $6 million profit for the quarter ended June 30.

The financial-services investment holding company, which owns Bermuda Commercial Bank and holdings in the UK and Australia, said it had benefited from currency fluctuations during the three-month period.

After the end of the quarter, Somers announced the sale of its stake in UK-based financial advisory form Ascot Lloyd Holdings — a sale which has allowed Somers to pay off all of its debt.

Warren McLeland, chairman of Somers, said: “The investee companies continue to perform strongly with excellent financial results in particular at Homeloans and Waverton. At the end of the quarter, the Company completed the profitable sale of its investment in Ascot Lloyd.

“The company’s results have benefited from strong capital markets in 2017 and during the quarter ended June 30, 2017 both the Australian dollar and sterling increased in value against the US dollar. This positively impacts the company’s overall valuation given 60 per cent of the investment portfolio is denominated in either Australian dollars or British pounds.

“We were pleased to recently announce the company’s bonus warrant issue, the proceeds of which combined with the proceeds from the sale of our Ascot Lloyd investment has enabled the company to completely eliminate all of its debt post the quarter end.

“The company’s balance sheet is strong and we therefore look forward to the rest of the year with cautious optimism.”

The results did not specify net income for BCB, but Somers said the bank maintains “a high capital ratio of 23.2 per cent and a highly liquid balance sheet with 43 per cent in cash and high quality liquid assets”.

Assets under management at Homeloans Ltd, Somers’ Australian holding, increased to $9.4 billion and as part of its funding programme completed a successful A$1 billion residential mortgage-backed securities issue.

Its major UK investment, Waverton Investment Management Ltd had assets under management of £5.2 billion at June 30.

During the first six months of its fiscal year, through the end of March, the company announced a loss of $6.6 million.

Somers’ $6 million net income compared to $0.1 million in the corresponding quarter of last year.

This reduced the year to date net loss to $0.6 million.

Somers’ diluted net asset value per share was $17.63 as at June 30, 2017. As of the close of trading on the Bermuda Stock Exchange on Tuesday this week, Somers’ share price was $13.

Somers recorded a $2.7 million gain on its investment portfolio during the June quarter and this reduced year to date investment losses to $1.4 million.