Close Brothers Says Banking Growth Strong, But Markets Take Some Toll

Tom Burroughes

20 July 2012

Close Brothers Group, which provides financial services including wealth management, has continued to deliver strong growth in its banking division although difficult trading conditions for its Winterflood broking arm have affected performance, the UK-listed firm reported in its update.

The firm issued a pre-close trading update ahead of its 2012 financial year-end, giving comments on performance for the five months to 30 June. It issues full-year results on the 12 months to 31 July on 25 September this year.

The banking division’s loan book increased by 10 per cent to £4.1 billion (31 January 2012: £3.8 billion) at 30 June 2012, and is up 20 per cent for the financial year to date.

The securities division continued to experience difficult market conditions and Winterflood has been affected by low retail investor risk appetite throughout the period.

The asset management division is nearing completion of its restructuring and made a small loss as expected. Private clients assets under management remained unchanged at £6.9 billion at 30 June 2012 as positive net new funds were offset by negative market movements.

Total AuM fell to £8.2 billion (31 January 2012: £8.6 billion) reflecting the previously announced sale of OLIM's property fund management business with £0.4 billion in AuM.