Wealth manager Brewin Dolphin reports higher funds in Q1

Brewin Dolphin has seen total funds and income jump in the first quarter, although the results were deemed “slightly weaker than expected” by one analyst team.

The wealth manager said in a trading update that total funds came in at £41.5 billion in the period to 31 December, a year- on-year jump of 3.5 per cent. Discretionary funds grew 4.4 per cent to £35.3bn.

Chief executive David Nicol said: “The business has continued to perform well in the first quarter, maintaining the positive momentum we saw at the end of our 2017 financial year.

“Growth in total funds was achieved from continued strong inflows into our core services and positive invest- ment returns for our clients. This has led to good overall income growth with the particularly strong growth in fee income more than offsetting the decline in commission income.”

Total income was £79 million, a year-on-year jump of 10.8 per cent, boosted by fee income growth of 15 per cent to £59.2m while commission income fell 10.5 per cent to £13.6m. Nicol added: “We believe that our positive momentum will continue into the second quarter.”

Analysts at Numis praised ongoing restructuring “and we generally like the wealth management industry, [but] we believe much of this opportunity is already reflected in the current share price”.

Shares closed down 0.2 per cent at 375.4p. 0 CEO David Nicol forecasts further ‘positive momentum’