Preliminary Results

1 December 2010

Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC

Group Preliminary Results

For the 52 weeks ended 26 September 2010

Highlights

Declaration of Final Dividend

The Board is proposing a final dividend of 3.55p, to be approved at the 2011 AGM and payable on 5 April 2011 to shareholders on the register at close of business on 11 March 2011, with an ex-dividend date of 9 March 2011.

Jamie Matheson, Executive Chairman said:

"Our growth plans continue to be built around an unstinting focus on high levels of service and the ability to attract new clients that this reputation provides.…… it would appear that there is a growing realisation that prudent financial management and the merits of equity over debt finance are a fundamental key to economic growth. In particular we believe that this view is strongly held in the UK and this leads us to look to the future with optimism."

For further information, please contact:

Business Review: Executive Chairman's Statement

By comparison with recent years financial markets proved relatively stable over the year to 26th September 2010. In this environment Brewin Dolphin continued to make steady progress.

Total income for the year was £250.9 million, up 18% on last year. Pre tax profit excluding redundancy costs, contract renewal payments and the amortisation of client relationships was £40.2 million, up 25% on last year. Pre tax profit was up 43% at £31.4 million. This improved performance was achieved despite a material rise in the costs of regulation. We do not at this stage expect a rise of such magnitude in the current year. In the meantime, it is your Board's intention to seek out means whereby some of these cost rises may be mitigated.

Investment Management

It was another year of useful progress for our Investment Management business which represented 96% of Group turnover. The Division proved resilient in the turbulent market conditions seen in the 2009 financial year and has made material progress in more recent steadier times. While we do not take this for granted, we are conscious that this gives our clients added confidence in our approach. We continue to believe strongly in the merits of long term equity investment with proper recognition of the value of dividends.

The Division's income rose by 18% during the period and profits excluding redundancy costs, contract renewal payments and the amortisation of client relationships by 25%. Total Funds under Management increased from £20.5 billion to £23.2 billion, a 13% increase largely reflecting a rise of 19% in discretionary funds. During the same period the FTSE 100 index rose by 10% and the FTSE APCIMS Private Investor Series Balanced Portfolio by 8%. While the dramatic influx in new Investment Managers and Financial Planners of three years ago was exceptional we continue to enjoy a steady flow of newcomers to the firm.

As I have said before, our network of offices is now of a size to give us comprehensive coverage of most of the UK, and is therefore unlikely to be expanded significantly. We opened one new branch during the year in Shrewsbury and we were joined by new Investment Managers in other offices, in line with your Board's declared policy of further strengthening our existing network.

It remains a Board priority to continue to develop improved operational systems and to deepen our services to clients. By way of example we have in recent weeks successfully launched a new on-line valuation and reporting service, as promised in our Interim Report in May.

Corporate Advisory & Broking

After achieving a profit last year against a quite torrid background, our Corporate Advisory & Broking division was able to return an operating profit of £1.5m this year. This is all the more satisfactory given that the level of corporate activity throughout the year was consistently lower than had been expected.

Dividend

The Board is proposing a final dividend of 3.55p per share to be approved at the AGM in February 2011 and paid on 5 April 2011. This will bring the total dividend for the period to 7.1p in line with the dividend paid last year.

Regulation

Your Board believes that the impact of regulation upon the business is unlikely to reduce in the foreseeable future. It is our view that we have a duty to participate fully in any forums that can influence the shape of future regulation. In particular we remain concerned about the "one size fits all" approach which is more appropriate to businesses that merely sell financial products rather than businesses like ours whose principal activity is providing advice and service to our clients.

Board Changes

There has been one change to the composition of the Board during the year with the appointment of Henry Algeo in July. He is the Regional Managing Director for Scotland and the North West and brings to the Board a wealth of experience both in practice and operations. Our Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Non Executive Director, Nick Hood has indicated his intention to retire from the Board at our AGM in February 2012.

Strategy

It remains your Board's strategy to continue to grow the business for the benefit of our shareholders by maintaining the quality and increasing the depth of our service to our clients. I do not anticipate any material changes to the structure of our UK network but we will pursue all suitable opportunities to strengthen it further. This will be done in conjunction with the promotion of our single Brewin Dolphin brand, which was adopted Group wide in March 2009. A number of new initiatives were undertaken during the year, and in particular I would like to highlight our sponsorship of the Motor Neurone Disease garden at this year's Chelsea Flower Show. We were delighted that the garden enjoyed a visit from Her Majesty The Queen.

Outlook

This year's results reflect the hard work of our people and the very significant support of our clients. Our growth plans continue to be built around an unstinting focus on high levels of service and the ability to attract new clients that this reputation provides. It would be foolhardy to rule out further unforeseen market events, but it would appear that there is a growing realisation that prudent financial management and the merits of equity over debt finance are a fundamental key to economic growth. In particular we believe that this view is strongly held in the UK and this leads us to look to the future with optimism.

Jamie Matheson

30 November 2010

Business Review: Investment Management

David McCorkell - Executive Director - Head of Investment Management

It is very encouraging to report another record year for the Investment Management Division in what has been a good year for global stock markets.

Investment Management has seen its total income grow by 18% to £240m in 2010 and operating profits excluding redundancy costs, contract renewal expense and amortisation of client relationships rose by 25% to £38.3m.

This is analysed as follows:

Fees, interest and other recurring income have increased by 24% (2009: 4%) to 57% of total revenue (2009: 54%) whilst commission increased by 10% (2009: 7%). The trend towards Discretionary Management persists and the level of recurring income continues to grow.

Funds under Management ("FUM")

Total funds under our Discretionary Management were £14.0 billion at the year end against £11.8 billion last year, a rise of 18.6%. Funds under Advisory Management were £9.2 billion, a rise of 5.7% over the year, giving total funds under management of £23.2 billion, an overall increase of 13.2%. I am very pleased to report an inflow of new FUM of £2.3 billion of which 70% was under discretionary mandates.

During the period the FTSE 100 Share Index and the FTSE APCIMS Private Investor Series Balanced Portfolio Index increased by 10.2% and 7.7% respectively.

The Business

During the year we have added four new Investment Management teams to the Group. The largest team consists of eleven Divisional Directors and staff who joined us in Shrewsbury, where we have opened a new branch. Our offices in Guernsey, Reigate, Stoke and Taunton have all relocated to new larger premises.

We currently have a total of 657 FSA Approved Persons of which 628 are FSA Registered CF30 Client Executives and Investment Managers around the country. We thank them all and their support staff for their dedication to their clients and their considerable contributions to the business over the last year.

The Retail Distribution Review ("RDR"), expected to be implemented at the end of 2012, will require all investment advisors throughout the industry to achieve minimum professional qualifications and this is a measure we support. The majority of our investment managers are already qualified well above these minimum levels and we have implemented a training programme to ensure that all our client executives surpass these minimum requirements by 2012.

Other aspects of the RDR are still to be confirmed and we remain in discussion with Regulators and Parliamentarians about particular details. There is little doubt that the measure as a whole will again change the way we do business and add to our cost burden.

We have seen considerable successes flowing from our Business Development department's efforts. The team which introduces Brewin Dolphin services to Independent Financial Advisors ("IFAs") and other professional intermediaries around the UK, is now well established and has introduced over £380 million of new business in the year, a 55% increase on last year. We are also delighted to report that we have won Citywire's Advisers Choice Award for the best Large Wealth Management Firm, as voted for by professional intermediaries.

During the year, we embarked on our first national advertising campaign to raise our brand awareness following our move to one name in March 2009. The analysis of the campaign shows that it was successful. It also brought in new business leads.

A new website was launched, in 2010 each branch having its own micro site giving details and biographies of the Investment Managers and other news and events in each area. We have also just launched a new and improved on line valuation and reporting service and it is our intention to increase further electronic contact and functionality for our clients in the coming year.

Our team of research analysts has grown during the period and their services for our Investment Managers and other professional advisers have developed considerably. We were delighted that this team won the Investment Week Award for Best Discretionary Research in 2010.

Recognising the increasing requirements of Trustees of charitable funds, we have strengthened our specialist team of charity advisers and now have 18 investment managers throughout the U.K. We manage over £1.7 billion of charitable funds and were included in the UK Top Ten charity fund managers in Charity Finance's 2010 Annual Survey.

Our business model, where qualified investment managers give personal advice and bespoke portfolio management to private investors and trustees, face to face and wherever they are, continues to be successful and is attracting record amounts of new business to the Group. We are determined not to be thwarted by increasing amounts of regulation and to be able to continue to provide these levels of service to our clients.

Business Review: Corporate Advisory & Broking

Graeme Summers - Director of Brewin Dolphin Limited - Head of Corporate Advisory & Broking

The last financial year for the Division has continued to be characterised by difficult trading conditions in capital markets. Despite this, we are pleased to report that the Division's contribution to the Group improved from the low base of the previous year. This maintains our track record of unbroken profits.

Total income and operating profits excluding redundancy costs and contract renewal payments increased by 31% and 20 times respectively.

This is analysed as follows:

Our Sales, Trading and Research teams performed well in a very competitive market place, due to their continued commitment to identifying and transacting value-added investment ideas for our institutional fund manager clients.

Despite low levels of equity fundraising activity, the Corporate Advisory and Broking team delivered a similarly robust performance during the period, The team adapted well to the difficult conditions and delivered over 70% of corporate income from Merger and Acquisition activity and other services such as Debt Advisory.

We currently have 91 corporate clients. This number is unchanged from the previous year, reflecting 33 new mandates, despite a number of clients having been taken over or delisting in the period.

Of these clients, 48 are quoted on the Official List with an average market capitalisation of £241m and 37 on AIM with an average market capitalisation of £44m. The balance comprises a small number of private companies.

Encouragingly, there appears to have been a general recovery in confidence in capital markets over the last month or so. Whilst it is still early days, we are as a team cautiously optimistic that this may provide a platform for a sustained recovery and a return to more favourable conditions.

Extracts from Business Review: Finance

Results for 2010 Financial Year

The performance in the period is set out below:

We have outperformed the market movement as shown above with operating profit (excluding redundancy costs, contract renewal payments and amortisation of client relationships) up 30%. Diluted earnings per share, after taking into account the December 2009 placing, on a similar basis, are up 16%.

Profit before tax shows a 43% increase and standard diluted earnings per share are up 32%

Contract Renewal Payments and Deferred Profit Share Plan

Once every ten years, the Group updates its employment contracts to take account of changes in employment law and remuneration practices. All staff received new contracts in December 2009 and these have been signed and returned by 99.8% of staff.

In addition, this year contracts include a new provision for business facing staff that 1/3 of profit share above £50,000 has to be paid in deferred shares under the new deferred profit share plan. These shares have to be held for a minimum of three years and will be forfeited if an employee moves to a competitor in the three year period.

This scheme is designed to strengthen share ownership by the Group. The Directors believe that these new contracts combined with greater share ownership will strengthen the Group in the interest of shareholders.

Available for Sale Investments

This year the Group found it necessary to write down such investments.

Our investment in PLUS Markets Group PLC has been written down to its fair value of £114,000, with a resulting charge to profit in the year of £495,000. The original investment in PLUS Markets Group PLC was strategic and designed to reduce the then monopoly of the London Stock Exchange. In this it was a success but now there is intense competition in this market and the value of PLUS Markets Group PLC itself has fallen.

The investment in Euroclear plc came to us via a £431,000 strategic investment in Crest, the London based settlement system. Crest was taken over by Euroclear and our resultant stake in Euroclear is 0.52% of its share capital. In 2005, with the introduction of IFRS, we valued Euroclear, based largely on our share of its net assets, at £8.5m and over the years, on this basis tempered by dividend yield, our valuation was increased to £10m. At the time of Euroclear's last accounts in December 2009 our share of net assets was £14m. However, Euroclear recorded a loss in 2009 and cut its dividend from €20.49 per share to €11.46. After taking internal professional advice, it was felt appropriate to value Euroclear on a dividend yield basis and therefore the investment has been valued at £6m representing a £4m reduction in fair value which has been taken through the revaluation reserve.

Pension Fund

The actuarial loss on the pension fund this year was £1.9 million (2009: £9.5million). Under IAS19, large annual fluctuations will occur. If long term interest rates increase this loss should reverse. This year, the Group has agreed to make additional pension contributions of £3 million per annum with the aim of paying the deficit off over the next 8 years.

Cash Flow and Capital Expenditure

2010 saw a net cash inflow of £21.9m (2009: £8.2m net cash outflow). There was a £45.1m (2009: £37.4m) inflow of funds from operating activities. £8.3m (2009: £6.3m) of cash was spent on acquiring teams of Investment Managers and their client relationships, and £13.6m (2009: £9.5m) on computer software and other, mainly computer related, fixed assets. Dividends paid in the period came to £16.0m (2009: £15.0m).

In December 2009 £14.3m was raised by a placing of 10,590,764 of the Company's ordinary shares.

In March 2010 £4m was paid into the staff pension fund as part of an agreed deficit reduction plan.

Capital Structure, Treasury Policy, Liquidity and Capital Requirement

At 26 September 2010 the Group had net assets of £141.6m (2009: £118.2m). Net assets excluding intangible assets and shares to be issued of £65m (2009: £51m) broadly represent the Group's capital for regulatory purposes. These net assets were largely represented by net cash and cash equivalents of £87m (2009: £65m), including £25m (2009: £26m) of client settlement money. The Group, has an agreed overdraft facility of £15m (2009: £15m). At the period end the Group had a surplus of net assets for regulatory capital adequacy purposes of £24.3m (2009: £11m). This will reduce by £5m when shares are purchased under the Deferred Profit Share Plan in December.

Our policy is to hold our clients' and Group's money only at major UK clearers. Our client money is ring fenced under the FSA's client money rules.

Client stock is also ring fenced in our nominee companies. Stock is settled via the Crest System which is owned by Euroclear, not withstanding our comments above, a highly rated bank, and, in the case of foreign stock, the Bank of New York.

Robin Bayford

Finance Director

30 November 2010

Consolidated Income Statement

52 week period ended 26 September 2010

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

52 week period ended 26 September 2010

Consolidated Balance Sheet

As at 26 September 2010

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

52 week period ended 26 September 2010

Company Balance Sheet

As at 26 September 2010

Company Statement of Changes in Equity

52 week period ended 26 September 2010

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

52 week period ended 26 September 2010

Notes to the Financial Statements

For management purposes, the Group is divided into two business streams: Investment Management and Corporate Advisory & Broking (formerly Investment Banking). These form the reportable segments of the Group.

All operations are carried out in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. All segment income relates to external clients.

The calculation of the basic and diluted earnings per share is based on the following data:

Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC is a company incorporated in the United Kingdom under the Companies Act 2006 whose shares are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange. The address of the registered office is 12 Smithfield Street, London, EC1A 9BD, United Kingdom.

The accounting policies used in arriving at the preliminary figures are consistent with those which will be published in the full financial statements. They are also consistent with those policies which were set out in the Group's Annual Report and Accounts for 2009.

This preliminary announcement is presented in pounds sterling which is the currency of the primary economic environment in which the Group operates.

This preliminary announcement was approved by the Board on 30 November 2010.

The financial information in this press release does not constitute statutory accounts for the period ended 26 September 2010 or 27 September 2009. Statutory accounts for 2009 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and those for 2010 will be delivered following the Company's Annual General Meeting. The auditors have reported on the 2009 and 2010 accounts; their reports were unqualified, did not draw attention to any matters by way of emphasis without qualifying their report and did not contain statements under section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

Whilst the financial information included in this preliminary announcement has been prepared in accordance with the recognition and measurement criteria of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), this announcement does not itself contain sufficient information to comply with IFRSs. The Company expects to publish full financial statements that comply with IFRSs in January 2011.

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 12 noon on 25 February 2011 at Merchant Taylors' Hall, 30 Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8JB.

The Directors believe that the Group is well placed to manage its business risks successfully. The Group's forecasts and projections, taking account of possible adverse changes in trading performance, show that the Group should be able to operate within the level of its current financing arrangements. Accordingly, the Directors continue to adopt the going concern basis for the preparation of the financial statements.

The Annual Report will be posted to shareholders during January 2011. Copies will be available from the registered office of the Company, 12 Smithfield Street, London, EC1A 9BD. It will also be available as a download from the Company's website www.brewin.co.uk. A further notification will be made to advise of posting and publishing on the website.

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the Brewin Dolphin's Group's financial condition, operations, and business opportunities. These forward-looking statements represent the Group's expectations or beliefs concerning future events, and involve known and unknown risks, and uncertainty, that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.