Specialist adviser aims to double profits

FRENKEL Topping,  which provides specialist independent financial advice to personal injury trusts and the families of people awarded money for clinical negligence, is looking to double its profits over the next to years.

The AIM-listed Manchester company says new services and geographical expansion will help it achieve this goal.
In addition, it is also looking for acquisitions too.
 
As well as Manchester, Frenkel Topping has offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London and Leeds.
and has relationships and infrastructure in place to further grow its reach and target markets.

In a trading update the company said its strategic investment in new advisory staff had increased revenues and assets under management, but that profits would be behind the 2014 total, but in line with expectations.

Unaudited revenues for the full year grew by just over 10% to £6.3m (2014: £5.7m. As a result of the planned expansion of the geographical footprint, authorised individuals and the running cost of the newly acquired business, it expects to report an operating profit of approximately £1.5m (2014: £1.74m.

It added: “The board believes that the investments made in 2015 will position the company well for accelerated growth in 2016 and 2017.”

During the year, unaudited assets under management increased to £666m as at 31 December 2015 (2014: £619m) with a record £85m(2014: £61 million) of new assets signed up during the period.

Unaudited pre-tax profit for 2015 was £1.29m (2014: £1.56m), after deducting £136,000 of legal fees in connection with the acquisition of fund management business FTIM in September 2015.  After accounting for the legal fees and the additional running cost of the newly acquired business, pre-tax trading profit from the core business was in line with market expectations.

The expansion into discretionary fund management will help unlock growth.

It explained: “While the acquisition of FTIM afforded the Group the opportunity to launch its own DFM service, it also provided the company with an enhanced opportunity to negotiate revised terms with existing platform and DFM providers.

“Following discussions, the company is delighted to announce that new agreements have been reached with our existing platform provider and Cannacord Genuity Wealth Management which will have a broadly equivalent impact on the company’s profitability to bringing investment management services in-house. As a result the board believes that the vompany will be able to compete more competitively (on the basis of a lower cost solution for clients) with the goal of adding significantly more AUM over the coming years.”

It added: “The board’s expectations are that in the financial year ending 31 December 2017, given no presently unforeseen external influences, there should be a doubling of operating profitability from that expected for the financial year ended 31 December 2015.”

Chief executive Richard Fraser, said: “The company continued to strengthen its offering during the period. The addition of new fee earning consultants and regional offices helped drive asset under management growth while the acquisition of FC Fund Management Limited has enabled us to revisit our broader offering.

“As such, having negotiated new arrangements, we will be able to provide a low cost proposition for the provision of advice and management to our clients. We look forward with confidence to growing AUM and generating shareholder value in 2016 and beyond.”

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