Intrinsic Financial Services saw its losses decrease during the calendar year of 2016 to £8.9m, according to its latest accounts.
The network, which has not made a full year profit since Old Mutual Wealth bought it in 2014, made a loss of £13m in 2015.
In their latest set of results Intrinsic reported it has been investing in recruitment which has led to expenditure on infrastructure.
Bosses predicted that losses will continue, but on a reducing basis, as it continues to invest in its growth strategy.
Despite this the number of advisers in Intrinsic went down during 2016 to 3,307 from 3,380 in the previous year.
Andy Thompson, chief executive of Intrinsic, said: “Intrinsic has grown strongly over the last six years to become one of the leading controlled distribution businesses within the UK with over 3,300 advisers delivering value to customers through quality advice, ongoing service and a compelling proposition.
“The company has, however, recognised that in order to continue to grow it needs to meet new challenges, particularly as customers become more demanding of their adviser in a technology enabled world.”
He said that during 2016 the network carried out a strategic review of these challenges which led to Intrinsic taking a number of actions, including the acquisition of Caerus Capital Group and the separation of its wealth and mortgage channels.
During 2016 Intrinsic received a contribution of £15m from Old Mutual Wealth towards the development of the business.
Speaking to FTAdviser last month, Old Mutual Wealth chief executive Paul Feeney declined to put a date on when Intrinsic would become profitable and disputed that the company could fall foul of the Financial Conduct Authority’s rules on cross-subsidisation.
Addressing the fact that adviser numbers had gone down despite Intrinsic's focus on growth, a spokesman for the network said this was because of natural turnover and an "increased focus on quality".
He added: "The business continues to perform well against its strategy and has increased restricted adviser numbers.
“In June this year the business reported that it had over 1,500 restricted financial planners, an 11 per cent increase since the start of the year.
“In total, there are circa 3,700 advisers across the network as a whole. Productivity per adviser also increased significantly, reflected in increased turnover.”
Intrinsic Financial Services is the holding company of several subsidiaries which file separate financial results and does not consolidate its performance.
damian.fantato@ft.com
