Mattioli Woods, the specialist wealth and asset management business, has hailed its “resilient trading performance” in interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2022.
Revenue was up 10% to £54.9m, growing from £49.9m in the same period of the year prior, with acquisitions made since January 2021 contributing £20.2m.
Meanwhile operating profit jumped 62.7% to £4.6m, up from £2.8m, and pre-tax profit increased 45.5% to £4.8m, up from £3.3m.
Ian Mattioli MBE, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The first six months of this financial year saw the group deliver a resilient trading performance against the challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop that persisted throughout calendar year 2022.
“During the period, we proactively balanced securing good financial outcomes for our clients with ensuring the long-term growth and sustainability of our business, remaining true to our purpose of putting clients first. We are pleased to report further progress towards our strategic medium-term goals, achieving continued revenue growth in the first half of this financial year.
“Revenue of £54.9m was 10% higher than the equivalent period last year (1H22: £49.9m) driven by positive performances in our pensions advice and administration, employee benefits, property management and private equity management operating segments.
“The success of our new business initiatives and the strength of existing client referrals resulted in organic revenue growth of over 2%, despite a 2% fall in the value of total client assets. Clients’ demand for advice and proactive communications by our advisers in such uncertain times resulted in an increase in advisory time, as well as the value of new clients on-boarded in the first half more than 10% higher than the equivalent period last year.
“The Group’s strong, integrated business model facilitates multiple engagement points in providing a holistic service to our clients and to generate multiple revenue streams to facilitate future revenue growth.
“The eight acquisitions completed since 1 January 2021, including our two largest acquisitions to date, Maven and Ludlow, contributed £20.2m (1H22: £19.4m) of revenue in the period and continue to deliver revenue synergies. The contributions of recent acquisitions, organic growth and continued cost management were offset by the impact of market movement on ad valorem revenues, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of £15.0m (1H22: £15.8m).
“Profit before tax was up 45.5% to £4.8m (1H22: £3.3m) due to reduced deferred consideration payments recognised as remuneration expense under IFRS 3 of £3.9m (1H22: £4.6m) and lower acquisition-related costs of £0.5m (1H22: £2.6m), while adjusted profit before tax of £13.5m was down 4.3% (1H22: £14.1m) after adding back acquisition-related costs, deferred consideration recognised as an expense and amortisation of acquired intangible assets of £3.9m (1H22: £3.3m).
“We believe the benefits of operating a responsibly integrated business allows us to secure great client outcomes, control clients’ costs while delivering strong, sustainable shareholder returns over the long-term. The Board remains committed to growing the dividend, while maintaining an appropriate level of dividend cover. Accordingly, the Board is pleased to announce an increased interim dividend of 8.8p per share (1H22: 8.3p) up 6.0%, demonstrating our desire to deliver value to shareholders and confidence in the financial outlook for our business.
“The first half of the financial year has seen the group deliver a resilient trading performance against a complex macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop. We plan to build on this position, through investing in our people and our systems to advance our key strategic initiatives: new business generation, investing in our in-house training programmes, growth through the integration of strategic acquisitions, developing new products and services, reviewing our processes and investing in technology to deliver further operational efficiencies.
“Our trading outlook for the year remains in line with management’s expectations and we believe the group is well-positioned to secure further growth to the benefit of all our stakeholders, driving improvements in earnings, operating margin and shareholder returns.”
