Brewin Dolphin’s discretionary funds under management (FUM) grew 9 per cent in the first half of its financial year as the firm entered the final stage of its extensive transformation plan.
The growth in the firm’s FUM from £24bn to £26.2bn in the six months to the end of March 2015 came through a combination of £0.7bn net inflows and £1.5bn positive market movement.
However, continued outflows from the firm’s advisory services meant Brewin Dolphin’s overall managed/advised business saw net outflows of £0.4bn over the period.
Since 2012, the wealth manager has embarked on an extensive overhaul of its business to focus on discretionary management as the key to long-term sustainable growth.
David Nicol, chief executive of Brewin Dolphin, said the firm was now “entering the final stages of its transformation programme”, the latest leg of which involved the offloading of its Stocktrade platform, which was announced earlier this month.
Brewin Dolphin’s results, in terms of assets, revenue and profits were in line with the forecast of brokers Numis Securities.
However, the broker downgraded its recommendation on the stock from ‘add’ to ‘hold’ this morning.
Brewin’s share price has rallied by 30 per cent in the past six months and so Numis said: “While we are confident management will be able to achieve most of its targets, we believe these are already largely priced in”.
