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Hargreaves Lansdown PLC on Tuesday remained optimistic for the year ahead, as it beat expectations for both annual revenue and profit. For the 12 months ended June 30, the UK-based digital wealth management service reported pretax profit of £402.7 million, up 50% from £269.2 million a year prior. Revenue rose 26% to £735.1 million from £583.0 million. Diluted earnings per share were up 49% to 68.2 pence from 45.6p the previous year. Both figures beat MarketScreener-cited forecasts, which put pretax profit at £380 million, and revenue at £717 million. Newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Dan Olley said: ‘As I begin my CEO tenure, it is clear to me that at its core this is a strong business with fantastic heritage that has significant potential to benefit from the structural, demographic, and regulatory shifts in the UK and the expected growth in the wealth market.’ Total assets under administration ticked up 8.2% to £134.0 billion from £123.8 billion. Market growth of £5.4 billion contributed to the assets under administration improvement, Hargreaves Lansdown said. It also reported net new business inflows slipped of £4.8 billion, though this eased from £5.5 billion a year earlier. Hargreaves declared a final dividend of 28.80p, up from 27.44p year-on-year. This brought the firm’s total dividend to 41.50p, from 39.70p previously. Looking ahead, CEO Olley warned that the current economic climate is ‘likely to remain much the same’ for the coming financial year, and will continue to impact investor confidence. This will provide a continued tailwind for flows into Active Savings, Olley noted, but could pose a potential constraint on net new investment flows and dealing volumes. He added: ‘Against this backdrop, we have already started to take initial actions on cost and will continue to carefully manage all operating costs and efficiency improvements whilst balancing with the importance of providing the high level of service and support that our ever-growing client base demands.’ Hargreaves Lansdown shares were trading 0.7% lower at 759.80 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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