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Shore Capital profits nearly double amid 'political uncertainty'
Financial services group Shore Capital almost doubled profits in its most recent trading year, boosted by double-digit sales growth at its asset management division, despite its stockbroking division being weighed down by "political uncertainty".
The AIM-quoted firm witnessed pre-tax profits jump 91.7% to £4.6m in the year ended 31 December, while group revenues ticked up 6.3% to £41.9m.
Revenues from its asset management division grew 24%, and assets under management gained 5% to £865m, primarily due to heavier investments made in its private client investments business, Puma Investments.
However, the Guernsey-based business posted a 3.9% slimming of revenues from its capital markets wing, noting that "political uncertainty in the UK" had impacted its "domestically focused transactions".
Shore Capital also noted that, although it had won 13 new corporate clients throughout the year, the majority of the wins were on "a joint rather than a sole basis" and noted that with the introduction of MiFID II, the new European financial markets rules that came into force back in January which require brokers to charge asset managers for their research for the first time, had also hurt its cost base.
Shore's total equity at the end of the period was £67.2m, up just £100,000 year-on-year.
Longstanding chief executive and founder Howard Shore, who was replaced by new co-chief executives Simon Fine and David Kaye earlier in 2017 but has stayed on with the firm as its chairman, said, "There are excellent opportunities to grow our Asset Management platforms and in Capital Markets, our approach to MiFID II has ensured a wide distribution of our output to the investment community, with strong support from institutional clients signing-up to take our research. Consequently, we remain optimistic."
Shore also doubled its dividend to 10p.
As of 1310 GMT, shares had gained 8.57% to 266.00p.