Brewin costs spiral upwards

Full-year results for Brewin Dolphin (BRW) left investors querying whether the company has effective control over its costs, after spiralling staff expenses caused operating costs to burst through the mid-single-digit prediction that management had forecast at the interims; in these results, these rose by 11 per cent to £313m. Unsurprisingly, the market’s reaction was brutally swift and Brewin’s shares were marked down heavily in early trading before recovering some ground.