WH Ireland Group share price up despite wealth management company falling into a loss-making position for its year ended November 2015 after FCA levies £1.2m fine
Share price in WH Ireland Group rose today despite the company tumbling into a loss after accounting for a regulatory fine.
The wealth management company reported a loss before tax of £346,000 for its year ended November 2015, down from a profit of £456,000 the year before, after finding itself subject to a £1.2m fine from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The company, which is split into private wealth management and corporate broking divisions, also reported turnover £30.9m, up three per cent from £30m the year before.
Share price in the company, which is listed on Aim, was higher than its previous close throughout the day, trading up 1.1 per cent at 95p shortly before 4pm London time.
Last week, the FCA announced that it had fined the company for failing to ensure it had proper safeguards in place to prevent or detect market abuse during the first six months of 2013. The watchdog also banned the company from taking on new clients to its corporate broking division for a 72-day period.
Commenting on today's results, Richard Killingbeck, chief executive at WH Ireland, said that it was "pleasing to be able to report a good set of results for the year".
The company also revealed that its recurring revenue for the year had been boosted by 14 per cent to £11.4m, compared with £10m the year before.
Killingbeck continued:
Looking ahead, our target remains to reach a 50 per cent level of recurring revenue across the group (compared with 36 per cent in 2015). A lot of the work and success achieved during this past year should result in a further increase in this figure during 2016 towards our target, and as in past years I hope to be able to report that both divisions have contributed to this growth.