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LONDON (Alliance News) - WH Ireland Group PLC on Monday said it has decided against paying a dividend for its last financial year, citing a shaky start to 2016 for global stock markets and last week's GBP1.2 million fine from UK regulators over market abuse risks.
The wealth manager and corporate broker swung to a pretax loss of GBP346,000 in the year ended November 30, from a pretax profit of GBP456,000 the prior year, as the GBP1.2 million fine more than wiped out its operating profit. In December, WH Ireland had warned that it was likely to be hit by a substantial fine, which was taken as an exceptional item in its financial 2015 results.
No dividend was paid, versus a 2.0 pence payment the prior financial year.
Last week, WH Ireland raised GBP1.1 million in a share placing to strengthen its balance sheet in the wake of the regulatory fine. On top of being fined, WH Ireland was barred from taking on new clients in its corporate broking division for 72 days.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority said last week that WH Ireland failed to ensure it had the proper systems and controls in place to prevent market abuse being detected or occurring. The failings took place between January 1 and June 19, 2013.
On Monday, Chairman Tim Steel said that WH Ireland "has undergone significant change in every aspect of its business" since the period of the failures.
Chief Executive Officer Richard Killingbeck said the company had a "good set of results" in the year ended November 30. Assets under management in the company's private wealth arm rose by 1.8% to GBP2.52 billion on a like for like basis over the course of the year, with discretionary assets up 6.2% at GBP767.0 million.
The group's corporate broking arm's client list grew to 98 from 93, and WH Ireland said a further three corporate clients have been added since November 30, Caretech, Fastjet and Solid State.
"The past year will be remembered for the relative strength of the first half of the year against a backdrop of strong equity markets, as opposed to the second half, where weaker and more volatile markets have witnessed the ebbing of investor confidence. The fourth quarter of the year was particularly quiet within our corporate broking division," Killingbeck said.
"Looking ahead, our target remains to reach a 50% level of recurring revenue across the group (compared with 36% in 2015). A lot of the work and success achieved during this past year should result in a further increase in this figure during 2016 towards our target, and as in past years I hope to be able to report that both divisions have contributed to this growth," Killingbeck added.
Meanwhile, the company named Jonathan Carey, former group executive deputy chairman at Jupiter Fund Management PLC, as a non-executive director.
Shares in WH Ireland were up 3.2% at 96.99p on Monday early morning.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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