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LONDON (Alliance News) - Walker Crips Group PLC on Thursday said its pretax profit surged higher in the financial year to the end of March, helped by growth in revenue and a one-off gain offsetting exceptional costs.
Walker Crips, which provides stockbroking, investment and wealth management services, said pretax profit for the year to March 31 was GBP940,000, more than double the GBP440,000 it posted the year earlier.
The company made a GBP900,000 one-off gain from the sale of shares in Belgian post-trade services firm Euroclear, though this was broadly wiped out by a GBP800,000 exceptional cost booked on upgrading client information and communication systems.
Stripping out the one-offs, operating profit grew to GBP650,000 from GBP540,000, up 21%.
Revenue rose 14% to GBP26.1 million from GBP23.0 million. Walker Crips said its discretionary and advisory assets under management grew 15% to GBP2.30 billion from GBP2.0 billion and said the proportion of its revenue from non-stockbroking activities rose to GBP61.8% from 56.3%, reflecting a push by the company to move away from transaction-driven commission revenue.
Walker Crips said its final dividend will rise 8.5% to 1.27 pence from 1.17p, taking its total annual payout to 1.85p from 1.70p.
"We continue to achieve substantial growth and to refine our strategy and business model to make further strides towards attaining our long-term strategic goals. Against a background of difficult markets, we have striven to set higher regulatory standards and client service levels as we deliver our strategy for growth," said Chairman David Gelber.
Gelber said Walker Crips will continue to monitor the impact of the UK's decision to vote to leave the European Union but remains confident on its ability to navigate successfully through the uncertainty.
Walker Crips shares were up 1.1% to 45.00 pence Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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