Hargreaves Lansdown's profits rise in record year

The financial services provider has lifted its dividend after attracting thousands more customers onto its Vantage fund supermarket.

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by Dylan Lobo on Sep 01, 2010 at 08:00

Hargreaves Lansdown's profits rise in record year

Broker Hargreaves Lansdown has posted an 18% jump in profits on the back of a 65% increase in inflows over the past year.

In the 12 months to the end of June the wealth manager, which runs the popular Vantage fund supermarket, recorded total net business inflows of £3.3 billion with total assets under administration standing at £17.5 billion.

Revenue was 20% higher at £159 million, helping profits rise from £73.1 million to £86.3 million.

The numbers prompted the group to lift its dividend by 18% to 11.8p.

The firm's Vantage platform continued to attract investors with customer numbers jumping by 48,000 to 330,000.

The results come days after Stephen Lansdown, who set up the company with Peter Hargreaves nearly 30 years ago, announced he was resigning as an executive director to instead take up a non-executive position at the company.

Hargreaves, currently chief executive, announced earlier this year that he would step down from the role in the autumn to be replaced by Ian Gorham, currently chief operating officer. Hargreaves will remain as an executive director.

Commenting on the numbers, Hargreaves said: 'I am extremely pleased to report on a record year for the company, which is all the more impressive given the economic uncertainty that we have faced throughout the year. Revenue, profits and earnings per share have achieved record levels and although these measures have been helped by a rise in stock markets across the year, the more significant contribution has been from record organic growth.

'Even though we continue to face economic uncertainty, I believe that the company is extremely well placed to build on the momentum that has been generated so far. In doing so we will continue to deliver the excellent service that our clients want, which in turn will help maintain profitable growth and generate value for our shareholders.'

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5 comments so far. Why not have your say?

I am a long-time customer and can't fault their service. However, their charges seem to me quite high; I seem to be paying £12.50 a quarter standing charge and my last trade cost me £19 commission, so maybe that's why their profits are so high.

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We, as a family and as individuals, have been long-time customers and found their professionalism and service second to none. We have used HL for all our unit trust investments and my own SIPP Drawdown, and have found their charges to be the lowest found anywhere in the UK - no quarterly charges, very low initial buying charges, and to top it all, a refund annually on their loyalty bonus system. Their update of investment information is superb.

My only regret? I wish I still had the HL shares I bought when the company floated years ago. I sold them a year later for a quick profit, and just look at the

share price now!

I can recommend HL to anyone.

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It is an excellent firm, very well run, providing a range of competitive services with a very friendly web site. However there is one major weakness- they do not prvide a fixed rate deposit account. Many providers offer a rate of 2.5-3.00% and H-L have the power to even negotiate a better rate. many clients have cash balances and cumulatively they must amount to millions of pounds and I cannot believe that H-L are not earning a decent return on that money so why not offer that to their customers.

Indirectly therefore, we as customers are paying a charge of 2.5-3% in additional charges. Cannot be fair?

I hope H-L look into this ASAP.

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What a shining light this company is and how other UK businesses could use it as an example to follow. In all respects I have found it first class for the last 3 1/2 years in terms of responsive service, both online and offline, research and information facilities, and cost effective for transactions at all levels, all provided in a professional and polite manner.

My only worry is that as it grows it will not become too large too quickly and in so doing lose it's current top notch attributes.

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r rodney

Jan 03, 2011 at 22:00

chander i agree with you. its dead sneaky of old hargreaves & co to kid us all with a non existant interest on our cash balance. they know that loads of people will simply forget they have cash or that they are worried to invest it in these turbulent times. It would just add that extra bit of quality service to top the whole operation off with if we had 1 - 2%. on the other hand i have his shares tucked away so i suppose its not so bad for me. frankly its time the company started to be a bit more agressive and take over some of the weaker companies in the UK....plus set up some overseas operations. just look at tesco.

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