Broker WH Ireland reports loss but notes ‘tentative’ signs of improvement in London’s IPO market
WH Ireland, the wealth manager, broker for small and medium-sized public companies, and advisor to private businesses, has today announced a significant loss for the six months ended 30 September 2023.
The company reported a statutory loss before tax of £3.9m for the period as revenue from both its brokerage arm and wealth management division plunged. Revenue declined to £10.7m from £14.3m reported for the same period last year.
Phillip Wale, WH Ireland’s chief blamed the “well documented challenging market backdrop” for the company’s performance.
However, Wale added that the company had seen “some tentative signs of improvement in both indices and activity levels since November,” which had allowed the firm to “undertake some of our largest fundraisings for many months across both public and private markets.”
WH Ireland won two new quoted corporate clients in the period, taking the number of quoted corporate clients to 86 at the end of September, compared to 90 at the end of March. The company blamed the “overall decline in the number of companies quoted on AIM” for the slump.
It has won two further corporate clients since the end of September.
Amid the decline in activity on AIM market, the company has undertaken several actions to try and boost its position. It has reduced its headcount from 156 to 111, generating £3.8m in annualised cost savings. It also raised £5m via a placing in August to shore up its balance sheet.
Thanks to these changes, as well as a pickup in activity towards the end of the year, the company said it returned to profitability on a monthly basis in November.
Wale said: “WH Ireland is now in a stronger financial position as a result of the delivery of our cost efficiency programme and it was pleasing to see the business deliver underlying monthly profitability (unaudited) in November 2023.”