Kingswood Holdings loss narrows following cost reductions

Kingswood Holdings reported a narrowed annual loss on Monday as reduced cost of sales and miscellaneous expenses offset a drop in revenue.

The integrated wealth management group recorded a loss before tax of £3.8m for 2018, a 38% reduction on the year beforehand, as cost of sales dropped by 23% to £0.8m and 'other losses' were reduced from £3.4m to £0.1m.

Meanwhile, the AIM traded company's revenue decreased by 5% from a year ago to reach £8.8m, while assets under management & advice in its core business stood at approximately £800m, behind the roughly £900m reported at the end of 2017, though Fixed Income assets in its core business increased by £63m to about £700m.

Gary Wilder, Kingswood's group chief executive, said: "Since Patrick Goulding and I have taken over day-to-day management control at the board's request earlier this year, we have now implemented the significant changes that were originally planned. I am pleased with the future direction of the company and believe a strong foundation is now in place from which to grow the platform and add value for shareholders."

Kingswood said that the last couple of years has been a period of significant management and operational change within the business, with 2018 impacted by "a highly uncertain market environment and weaker investor sentiment resulting in an industry-wide slowdown in net inflows."

Cash and cash equivalents stood at £2.4m at the end of the year, down from £9.8m at the same point the year before.

"We have a strong competitive advantage with our integrated wealth planning and investment management platform. We plan to leverage the platform to its full potential and are looking to expand our current product offering with turn-key opportunities such as mortgages, cash management and lending products, including the launch of Kingswood labelled products in partnership with best in class industry expertise," said Wilder.

Kingswood Holdings' shares were up 1.54% at 8.25p at 1202 BST.