Consultancy services provider to the wealth and asset manager sector, Alpha Financial Markets Consulting (AFMC), has delivered a strong set of year end for results for the year ending 31 March.
The company, which has around 90 percent of the largest asset managers as clients, saw revenue increase by 17 percent to £90.9 million and net fee income improve by 17.1 percent to £88.9 million both on a year-on-year basis.
Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was also up by 22.9 percent to £20.2 million compared to the prior year.
However, the firm’s operating profit is down by £2.2 million to £10.4 million which the company says is largely due to the result of expenses incurred with its acquisitions of Axxsys and Obsidian.
In what must surely have been a tough decision, the company is not paying a dividend in order to maintain liquidity ‘given COVID-19 uncertainty’. Given the stand out performance of the company since listing in 2017, shareholders seem to tolerant the move, its share price up 1.5 percent to 175p in early trading.
Since IPO, AFMC has been growing at an exponential rate, increasing its geographical footprint at a frantic pace. During the reporting period, the company added offices in Denmark and Canada, taking its global offering to 12. This global spread gives the company the ability to consult the truly global asset managers from a variety of locations.
However, given that the firm describes its offices as ‘client facing’ suggesting physical meetings, the unease over COVID becomes clear. Not only is the company not paying a final dividend, it is not providing any financial guidance for the upcoming year. Uncertain times indeed.
Euan Fraser, global CEO, said in a statement: “Following another successful year, we are now in a period of economic uncertainty relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent months, we acted quickly to ensure the safety of our people, transition seamlessly to remote working, manage costs and protect our robust balance sheet.
“We continue to monitor the situation and will take appropriate actions to manage the business to address the potential impacts of COVID-19. With the strength of the Alpha proposition and protective measures taken, the Group is well positioned for the market recovery."
