Jarvis Securities profits drop as uncertainty causes 'tougher conditions'

Jarvis Securities on Thursday reported a drop in annual profits after a drop in trading volumes was blamed on a lack of clarity over Brexit and an increase in revenue was more than offset by an increase in administrative expenses.

For the past calendar year the investment management company recorded a profit before tax of £4.3m, a decrease of 4% compared to the year before, after admin expenses jumped 15% to £5.7m as the addition of seven new employees lifted wages, salaries & social security climb 14% to £2.3m.

Revenue of £10.1m was up 7% after the AIM-quoted company restructured its commercial fee tariffs and provided additional revenue generating services to commercial clients, though the company still had a difficult end to the year.

Chairman Andrew Grant said: "The tougher conditions experienced in the final quarter of the year remain at the time of writing, fuelled by economic uncertainty and low investor confidence. I do not anticipate this continuing in the longer term as clarity over Brexit arrangements will soon be forthcoming, at which point I expect client trading volumes to return to previous higher levels. As a UK centric business, we remain largely unaffected by the other ramifications of Brexit."

Cash and cash equivalents stood at £4.7m at the end of the period, down from £13.2m at the same point the year before, while dividend per share was increased by 4% to 24.5p.

"I am optimistic about the coming year. 2019 will benefit from a full year of the additional services and fee tariffs that were introduced in June 2018. The second half of 2018 substantially outperformed the first six months and we would have had another record year had these been in place for the full 12 months. There are no significant cost increases anticipated, but most importantly there are no further major pieces of regulation to adopt. This will leave management and staff to focus on developing and growing the business," said Grant.

Jarvis Securities' shares were down 0.2% at 494.00p at 0903 GMT.