Frenkel Topping (LON: FEN), a specialist independent financial advisor and asset manager focused on asset protection for vulnerable clients, announces its full year results for the year ended 31 December 2018.
Richard Fraser, CEO of Frenkel Topping, commented: “The Board is pleased to report a year of progress, underpinned by significant investment across the business.
“Last year we identified a number of risks to Frenkel Topping’s development and embarked on an investment strategy to help grow and protect the business in a challenging market environment and mitigate these risks. During the year we invested £0.7m across the business mainly on IT systems, FTG Academy and marketing. This resulted in a 43% rise in new investment mandates and a 33% increase in Expert Witness instructions, the latter a key pipeline for future AUM growth.
“The Company is in a good position as we scale up for our next period of growth. We remain focused on delivering outstanding service to our clients and sustaining our very high client retention rate, as well as consolidating our position as the UK’s leading asset manager for personal injury and clinical negligence awards. Current trading is encouraging and we have had a solid start to the new financial year, underpinned by recent investment and our conservative investment approach.”
The first six months of the year saw a period of significant investment in marketing, HR, the Frenkel Topping Academy and technology, stabilising the business and preparing it for future growth. The benefits of these investments began to be realised in the second half of the year and delivered a record £92m of new investment mandates in a twelve month period.
Financial Highlights:
| FY 2018 | HY 2018 | FY 2017 | |
| Revenue | £7.7m | £3.6m | £7.3m |
| Recurring revenue | £6.0m | £2.9m | £5.9m |
| Gross profit | £4.7m | £2.1m | £4.8m |
| Profit from operations* | £1.7m | £0.9m | £2.2m |
| Pre-tax profit | £1.1m | £0.3m | £1.9m |
| Basic EPS | 1.11p | 0.32p | 2.24p |
| Cash from operations | £1.4m | £0.5m | £2.1m |
| Net cash and marketable securities | £2.0m | £1.8m | £1.9m |
| Total dividends (paid and proposed) | 1.29p per share | 0.32p per share | 1.22p per share |
- Profit from Operations is before share based compensation and reorganisation costs
Operational Highlights
· Tenth consecutive year of very high client retention (98%) for investment management services
· Assets under management (“AUM”) £779m (as at December 2017: £752m), up 3.6%
· Assets on a discretionary mandate £302m (as at 31 December 2017: £303m)
· Expert Witness new instruction, a key pipeline for future AUM growth, increased by 33%
