Walker Crips aims to grow its assets under management to £10bn in the next 10 years to keep pace with the minimum the firm’s chief investment officer said is needed to do business.
Mark Rushton said he expects growth to be mainly on the managed portfolio side of the business. Currently the firm has a total of £4.1bn in assets under management.
“We have a target of reaching £5bn by 2018 and going forward in time we want to double that in 10 years’ time,” he said.
“The minimum you need to run a business like this has grown, partly because doing the business has become more complicated, as there is more regulatory burden; which is as it should be.
“If you look back at the business mix as it was in 2012 after the asset management sale, there was a big chunk of execution only and custody, along with some advisory and discretionary, but now we have grown that managed side of the business much more.
“Ideally we will keep the administrative side growing a little while the managed business grows underneath it,” he added.
Mr Rushton said Walker Crips is looking to grow further, but following its acquisition of Barker Poland last year for £4.2m, this would probably be at a slower pace.
He admitted: “We have only recently done the Barker Poland deal and that was just over a year ago, we have been taking on individuals and we will continue but the pace may slow a little bit.
“If you look regionally at our spread there are some obviously little gaps,” Mr Rushton said. “They are not massive problems, but it would be useful to fill those. The north east and north west are two areas where there are gaps, but we are going to be opportunistic.”
Last month Walker Crips published its results for the year ending 31 March, which saw pre-tax profits more than double.
The investment management side of the firm generated revenue of £23.64m, while the wealth management arm generated £2.43m.
Mr Rushton added: “Although the wealth management revenue looks small, it is still an important adjunct to the overall business. A lot of clients come to us advised by IFAs, but others want some financial planning.”
