Mattioli Woods, which provides pension and other financial advice to professionals, blamed a fall in half-year profits on investor caution amidst the ongoing eurozone crisis and on the cost of expanding the business.
That backdrop left management advising customers to adopt a defensive position. But that has also hit investor activity levels and helped reduce turnover from providing direct pension consultancy and administration services. Although this was offset by the inclusion of last year's acquisition of employee benefit and wealth management specialist, Kudos, which added £1.85m in revenue. That deal also boosted the number of self-invested pension plans (Sipps) and small self-administered schemes (Ssas) administered by the group by 4.1 per cent to 4,525, and grew assets under administration by 28.8 per cent to £2.86bn. Meanwhile, there are plans to increase the product range to include a new discretionary portfolio management service - currently awaiting regulatory approval. That would help investors streamline their investment decisions by encouraging them to manage their portfolios on a discretionary rather than advisory basis.
Subject to revision, Cannacord expects full-year adjusted pre-tax profit of £5.4m, giving EPS of 20.4p (£4.9m and 19.2p in 2011).
| MATTIOLI WOODS (MTW) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 211p | MARKET VALUE: | £37m | |
| TOUCH: | 205-217p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 325p | LOW: 198p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.4% | PE RATIO: | 13 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 135p* | NET CASH: | £3.36m | |
| Half-year to 30 Nov | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 7.43 | 2.12 | 8.80 | 1.65 |
| 2011 | 8.69 | 1.48 | 5.61 | 1.85 |
| % change | +17 | -30 | -36 | +12 |
Ex-div: 8 Feb Payment: 2 Mar *Includes intangible assets of £23.5m, or 134p a share | ||||
