8th Mar 2023 08:44
(Alliance News) - Quilter PLC on Wednesday described its 2022 financial year as "challenging" mainly due to "adverse market movements" that left it with lower profit.
The London-based wealth manager said assets under management and administration declined by 11% to GBP99.6 billion at the end of 2022 from GBP111.8 billion a year before.
"2022 was a particularly challenging year for the entire wealth management industry due to lower equity markets and higher bond yields," said Chief Executive Steven Levin, who took the helm of Quilter in November last year.
Gross flows were GBP10.5 billion in 2022, down 20% from GBP13.2 billion in 2021, while net inflows slumped by 55% to GBP1.8 billion from GBP4.0 billion.
Pretax profit from continuing operations was GBP65 million, down 24% from GBP85 million. Basic earnings per share from continuing operations multiplied to 12.2 pence from 1.4p. Continuing operations exclude the results of Quilter International, which was sold in 2021.
The group hiked its final dividend to 3.3p, up 18% from 2.8p. This made for a total payout of 4.5p, up 13% from 4.0p.
"Current market conditions are very different from those we anticipated at our Capital Markets Day in late 2021, prior to the war in Ukraine. This has led us to rebase some of the targets we set out then," Levin said.
Going forward, Quilter expects investor sentiment to recover slowly this year supporting a gradual improvement in independent financial adviser net flows, coupled with another strong net flow performance from the Quilter Channel and a solid out-turn from its High Net Worth segment.
The weighted average of these growth rates suggests an improvement in group net flows to a bit over 2% this year. "We expect this to improve to 4% to 5% as market activity normalises, and we deliver the business initiatives I have set out, we clearly aspire to build momentum further from this level," Levin said.
Quilter shares rallied 5.7% to 94.18 pence on Wednesday morning in London. They were 4.2% higher at ZAR20.50 in Johannesburg.
By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News reporter
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