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LONDON (Alliance News) - Financial adviser and asset manager Frenkel Topping Group PLC on Monday said its pretax profit declined in the first half as it invested in a change of strategy, but revenue came in flat and the company pushed up its dividend in anticipation of faster growth in the second half.
Frenkel has been re-papering clients and migrating funds as Frenkel Topping Investment Management becomes the discretionary investment manager of its assets under management, meaning investment management is no longer entirely in the hands of third parties.
Investing in this change meant pretax profit fell to GBP300,000 in the half-year to the end of June from GBP600,000 a year earlier. Revenue in the half was flat at GBP2.9 million, with recurring revenue also flat at GBP2.2 million.
The firm said it will pay an interim dividend of 0.2375 pence, up from 0.19p.
Assets under management at the close of the half grew to GBP687.0 million from GBP640.0 million a year earlier. The group said it is on track to migrate GBP350.0 million of funds over to its discretionary service and said the provision of this service will drive higher growth in the second half for the business.
"Given the developmental nature of the first half the company is well placed to expand its operations and client base. We expect the benefits of our new strategy to feed through more rapidly during the second half now that the migration of funds has commenced. We have a wider potential customer base, a highly competitive pricing structure and are also benefiting from savings generated by renegotiated terms," said Jason Granite, who was appointed Frenkel Topping's executive chairman in June.
"The growing number of fee earners should benefit from the increased product offering and ability to target a wider retail customer base, and we are well placed to build on the momentum created during the first half. Having laid the foundations for growth during the period, the company remains on track to double 2015's operating profitability by 2017," he added.
Shares in Frenkel were untraded early Monday, having last traded at 43.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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