Regulatory crackdowns and stricter compliance requirements have forced banks and insurers to seek instruction from professional information and training group Wilmington (WIL). The upshot was a 14 per cent increase in adjusted pre-tax profits, which sent the shares up 4 per cent.
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Chief executive Pedro Ros marked his maiden set of results by spending nearly £50,000 on Wilmington's shares. Not that investors needed the morale boost: profits rose across the board, climbing 10 per cent in the finance division as bankers and accountants flocked to its training programmes. The division continues to focus on specialist markets; management says going toe-to-toe with industry giants Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters would leave it with "a bloody nose".