Frenkel Topping Share News (FEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Frenkel Topping Group PLC on Wednesday said its profit fell sharply in 2018 on lower revenue and increased investment costs.

The financial advisor reported pretax profit of GBP1.1 million for 2018, down by 40% compared to GBP1.9 million a year earlier, while revenue declined by 4.4% to GBP7.3 million from GBP7.7 million.

At the period end Frenkel said it was managing funds on behalf of its clients totalling GBP779 million, up from GBP752 million at the end of 2017. Frenkel noted that despite difficult financial markets all of its model portfolios in the investment management business achieved positive returns.

Frenkel declared a total dividend of 1.29 pence a share, up from 1.22p paid the year before.

"The board is pleased to report a year of progress, underpinned by significant investment across the business," said Chief Executive Richard Fraser.

"The company is in a good position as we scale up for our next period of growth," continued Fraser. "Current trading is encouraging and we have had a solid start to the new financial year, underpinned by recent investment and our conservative investment approach."

Frenkel shares were trading 0.9% higher on Wednesday at 28.25 pence each.