Revenue to the advisory firm grew by 22 per cent in the six months to 30 June 2012, with sales reaching £2.7m compared to £2.2m in the previous year. However the company continues its efforts to cut costs, which includes dropping “low profit” advisers.
Administrative expenses of more than £2.1m coupled with just over half a million pounds spent on acquisition of IFA members and clawbacks pushed the company into a loss before tax of almost £1.5m.
According to its interim statement, the company has also “made progress” towards readiness for the incoming Retail Distribution Review.
In the company’s statement, chairman James Holmes says: “This is against a generally accepted opinion that much of the IFA market still has some way to go to be RDR ready.”
Earlier this month (1 October), Merchant House Group reported a loss of £5.6m for the whole of 2011, including a loss of £2.4m incurred by Merchant House Financial Services which it attributed in large part to the arduous process of re-authorising the advisers in a newly-acquired firm.
