‘Political uncertainty’ holds back corporate adviser’s progress

Arden, the Edgbaston-based corporate adviser and multi-service stockbroker said that current political and market uncertainty had affected its latest six-month results up to April 2019.

It said the current situation continues to impact the stockbroking industry in general and was detrimental to the company’s first half performance.

While revenues for the period increased by 20.2% to £3.2m (2018: £2.6m) and the loss before tax declined by 30.2% to £1.6m (2018: £2.3m), difficult trading conditions, caused by domestic uncertainty, volatile equity markets and a decline in overall market transaction activity, held back the Group’s progress during the period.

The Group’s balance sheet remains strong with net assets of £7.4m at the period end (31 October 2018: £9.2m) with a basic loss per share: 5.5p (2018: loss per share of 7.9p).

Its corporate client base continued to grow – 56 corporate clients at the period end an increase from 51 as of 31 October 2018.

“Our first half performance reflects the continuing investor uncertainty and cautiousness towards the UK stockmarket,” said Chief Executive Officer Donald Brown.

“However, we are encouraged by the continuing progress at the company and, in particular, the growth in its corporate client list. We believe our investments into the group over the last two years have established a strong platform from which we can execute our ongoing growth strategy.”

Brown who joined Arden two years ago said he immediately set about stabilising its operations while reviewing its structure.

“I believe we have now established an appropriate platform from which to drive profitable growth across multiple revenue streams in the short to medium term, always recognising that our ability to do so will be influenced by the prevailing political and market backdrop.”

He also said that he expected the outturn for the full year to be satisfactory during what will be an important year of progress in growing the business.

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