LONDON (Alliance News) - Wealth manager and corporate broker WH Ireland Group PLC on Thursday said it swung to a loss in the first half of its financial year, as revenue sank.
The company said it made a pretax loss of GBP1.8 million in the half year to the end of May, compared to a GBP593,000 profit a year earlier.
Revenue shrivelled to GBP12.0 million from GBP15.9 million. This was caused by a decline in transactional income, which WH Ireland Chairman Tim Steel said was due to a "moribund" UK stock market, pressured by fears over Chinese economic growth, commodity price deflation and, latterly, the UK's EU referendum.
Assets under management and administration for the group grew to GBP2.67 billion from GBP2.52 billion, up 6.0%, while discretionary assets under management increased 24% to GBP949.0 million from GBP767.0 million.
Chief Executive Richard Killingbeck said the corporate broking unit is working on a number of potential transactions which, if completed, will boost revenue significantly in the second half of its financial year.
"Whilst the short-term outlook is unclear, market disruption which we have seen in the past few weeks has historically generated some considerable opportunities across both business lines. We will continue to keep all avenues open to take advantage of such opportunities as they arise," Killingbeck added.
Shares in the company were down 8.7% to 80.35 pence early Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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WHIreland (WHI)