The company which owns much of the Falkland Islands' infrastructure and a stake in an oil explorer there beat the City's predictions for its profits thanks to an unlikely source.

Falkland Islands Holdings also owns Momart, an organiser of fine art exhibitions, which in the past year has benefited from its involvement in, among others, the Bronze and Manet exhibitions at the Royal Academy, and the Pompeii show at the British Museum.

These helped the business push up its operating profits by a healthy 24 per cent to £1.19m and the overall group's pre-tax profit to £3.29m despite spending heavily on its Falkland business at the start of the oil boom. Its chairman, David Hudd, said: "The Falklands economy is on the threshold of a decade of dramatic growth. We have an exciting future in prospect."