The ICG (LSE: ICG) share price rose 11% in early trading on Tuesday (November 18). At the time of writing, it’s back up about 7%, but it’s still the leader FTSE100.

This comes after the company formerly known as Intermediate Capital Group released two pieces of news. One of them is an update on the first half results, which I will come back to soon.

On the other hand, ICG announced a recent partnership with French asset management company Amundi. His “development of private market products managed by ICG and distributed by Amundi, aimed at wealth investors“.

Contract for 10 years

The contract starts with an initial term of 10 years. And “Amundi will provide structuring, sales and after-sales support for the ICG managed products that Amundi distributes“.

The plan includes Amundi’s acquisition ofover time and no later than June 30, 2027, a non-dilutive economic interest of 9.9% in ICG, becoming a strategic shareholder and anchoring a long-term partnership“.

Amundi will be able to appoint a non-executive director to the ICG board. Therefore, it is more than just a sales and distribution agreement.

I think that establishing cooperation with Europe’s largest asset manager could be a great move for ICG, especially after Brexit, which has given British companies doing business in Europe a huge boost.

First half

Turning to the first half results, ICG’s assets under management increased by 6% in the half year, which means a year-on-year augment of 14%.

It saw management fees augment by 16% on the first half of last year, to £334m. This is definitely positive, but we must remember that this can be very cyclical. Stock markets overall had a better first six months of this year than the previous one, which helped improve the performance of ICG’s assets.

This led to a 78% augment in pre-tax profit to £352 million year-on-year. Earnings per share also increased by 78% to 102.8p and interim dividend increased by 5.3% to 27.7p per share. Forecasts indicate a full-year profitability of 4.4%.

What’s next?

Prior to the latest news, forecasts were for ICG’s full-year EPS to grow 28% from 2025 to 2028. This figure for the first half of the year has already reached 63% of the forecast 163 pence for the current year. They also forecast that the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio will be around 11.5 at the end of the year, falling to 9.6 based on 2028 forecasts.

These predictions will now be up in the air, especially with news of ICG’s recent partnership with Amundi. However, I’m not sure we’ll get many meaningful updates, at least until we get closer to full-year results.

That being said, I really don’t see analysts being disappointed with what we just heard. They already had a powerful Buy consensus on the stock, with an average price target of 2,590p. That’s 28% higher than ICG’s share price at the time of writing.

Time to buy?

ICG seems to have been overlooked by investors after several years of dismal economic conditions. However, we must remember the likely cyclical nature of future earnings – the company’s shares have seen several acute declines over the years. I think a lower than average P/E is probably justified.

However, I think ICG must be worth sedate consideration – for investors who are comfortable with the risk of short-term volatility.