15th Jun 2018 09:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - Currency manager Record PLC said Friday it suffered a drop in annual profit due to higher staff and office costs.
Shares in Record were trading down 3.4% at 45.00 pence on Friday morning.
For its financial year that ended March 31, Record said pretax profit was GBP7.3 million, down from GBP7.9 million the previous year.
The company attributed this dip to a decision to increase its headcount and to a rise in office occupancy costs. Operating margin narrowed to 31% from 34%.
Staff count rose to 83 on March 31 from 75 the year before.
Record said the increase in occupancy costs resulted from a new lease on larger offices for Record's headquarters in Windsor, England and the move of its US office from Atlanta to New York, both at higher market rentals than was previously the case. The company also signed a five-year lease for the new office in Zurich.
Group operating expenditure, excluding remuneration, increased 13% to GBP13.1 million from GBP11.6 million. Personnel costs increased 11%, accounting for GBP7.9 million of the GBP13.1 million versus GBP7.1 million the year before.
Record's overall administrative expenses totalled GBP16.4 million, up from GBP15.1 million the year before, and its cost of sales was GBP311,000, up from GBP298,000.
Record said its revenue was GBP23.8 million, up slightly from GBP23.0 million.
The company will pay a final dividend of 1.15p per share, bringing the dividend for its financial year to 2.30p per share, up from 2.00p the previous year.
The company has also declared a special dividend per share of 0.50p, though this was down from 0.91p the year before. The combined payout for the year will therefore be 2.80p per share, down 3.8% from 2.91p.
The company's assets under management equivalents were USD62.2 billion, up 6.9% from USD58.2 billion.
"Over time we are confident that the continued enhancement of all our products including passive hedging will lead to further growth opportunities," said Record Chairman Neil Record.
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