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LONDON (Alliance News) - Specialist asset management consultancy firm Alpha Financial Markets Consulting PLC hiked its dividend Wednesday after profit and revenue both jumped in a "strong" performance despite a difficult economic backdrop.
For the year ended March, pretax profit multiplied to GBP12.5 million from GBP1.5 million the year prior. This was after revenue leapt 15% to GBP76.0 million from GBP66.0 million the year before.
Profit performance was helped by a sharp fall in finance costs to GBP55,000 from GBP7.1 million the year prior. This followed its admission to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2017, which subsequently saw existing debt either repaid or converted to shares.
"We are pleased with the performance of the group and to be able to report on another year of profitable growth," Alpha Financial Chief Executive Officer Euan Fraser said.
"This strong growth comes despite the current political uncertainty and shows that Alpha is well positioned to help our clients respond to change in their industry," Fraser added. "We have continued to invest in growth through additional hires, expansion of our services and, following client demand, we have launched two new business practices and opened an office in Zurich.
Alpha Financial proposed a 4.09 pence per share final dividend, up 11% from 3.69p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 16% to 6.00p from 5.17p the year before.
"We have been able to deliver growth in the number of clients that we support, our repeat client contributions remain strong and we look forward positively to the year ahead", Fraser continued.
Shares in Alpha Financial were 0.4% lower at 230.10 pence on Wednesday.
