Hargreaves Lansdown sees sharp rise in profits following turbulent 12 months

Profits at financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown have started to climb again after a turbulent 12 months.

The Bristol business saw profit before tax increase by 31 per cent to £197.6m and revenues were up 20 per cent to £350m over the last six months.

The figures are still well short of last summer when the company announced full year profits of £269m.

Hargreaves Lansdown has come under repeated fire from its founder and former chief executive Peter Hargreaves in recent months.

Hargreaves, who is still the largest shareholder in the business, has called for major cuts at the firm in a series of scathing attacks on the board and current chief executive Chris Hill.

Peter Hargreaves

He said the company has “been one of the worst performing shares in the FTSE 100” and blamed the board for the poor performance.

The company said over the last six months it had added 31,000 net new clients over the period taking total client numbers to 1.77 million.

Assets under administration were up 2.3 per cent since June to £127.1bn. Earnings per share were up by 29 per cent to 33.1 pence. Last June they were 45.6 pence per share.

Chief executive Chris Hill praised the performance of the business set against a backdrop of unprecedented economic conditions.

He said: “It is hard to think of any financial analyst, economic forecaster or policy expert who could have predicted the events of the past year.

“Over the last 12 months we have seen a ground war start in Europe, inflation reach 40-year highs and central banks drive significant interest rate rises.

“The combined effects of this challenging backdrop in 2022 have led to the lowest six-month period on record for consumer confidence, while investor confidence also hit its lowest level ever.

“Given this extended period of macroeconomic uncertainty, our focus – as always – is on supporting clients with their financial wellbeing and helping them to navigate this turbulence. A year like 2022 really affirms the importance of our core purpose – as a trusted partner to empower people to save and invest with confidence and help improve the UK’s underlying financial resilience.”

Hill added: “I am delighted that we have delivered a strong financial performance over the first half of the year, with year-on-year revenue growth of 20 per cent and increasing both underlying and statutory profit by around 30 per cent.

“Whilst challenging external conditions and low investor confidence impacted asset values and stockbroking volumes in the period, clients have benefitted from our diversified platform and we have progressed across all the strategic priorities that we set

“Our focus remains on engaging with clients and helping them to navigate the challenging backdrop.

“The progress we have made over this period is the direct result of the hard work of each of my colleagues and I would like to thank them for their ongoing efforts.”

Dan Olley will take over as chief executive later this year.

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