Mattioli Woods has returned to paying employee bonuses, aside from its top brass, after its drastic cost cutting measures in response to the Covid crisis helped grow profits by over a third.
The Aim-listed wealth manager had warned staff in March they were unlikely to receive bonuses for the current financial year so that the firm could shore up additional resources to weather the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the emergency response plan chief executive Ian Mattioli (pictured) sacrificed his basic salary for three months, while the board of directors agreed to a 50% salary cut until 30 June 2020.
But in a trading update ahead of the firm’s AGM on Monday morning chairman Joanne Lake said the firm had recently awarded interim bonuses to all staff, excluding senior executives and directors, after its full year results were “significantly ahead of budget”.
Pre-tax profits were up 36.7% at £13.4m for the year ended 31 May 2020, while adjusted Ebitda margins increased to 32.4% compared with 24.5% the year before.
Revenue for the year also rose 1.6% to £58.4m and Mattioli ended the year with £26.0m of cash on its balance sheet, up from £23.2m in 2019.
“We recognise the huge effort of our people and their contribution to delivering these results,” Lake said.
“In line with our desire to balance the interests of all stakeholders, we have recently paid interim bonuses in respect of the current financial year to all staff, other than senior executives and directors”.
Net inflows in line with last year
Lake said in the four months of Mattioli’s new financial year the “market stability has shown signs of improving”.
Net inflows into the group’s investment and asset management services and the number of new clients it has taken on board were both in line with the equivalent period last year, she noted.
As such she said the board would be proposing a final dividend of 12.7p at the AGM taking the proposed total dividend for the year to 20.0p, up from 13.7p in 2019.
CFO steps down to advise on strategic acquisitions
Looking ahead Lake said the firm would continue to target strategic acquisitions, in addition to growing organically, despite the uncertainty of Brexit and the Covid crisis.
To support its M&A initiatives Lake said CFO Nathan Imlach would be standing down from the board after 15 years to continue as a chief strategic adviser to the group.
Ravi Tara, Michael Wright and Iain McKeznie will join the board immediately following regulatory approval of their appointments and Mattioli has said “it is in discussion with potential candidates” to appoint additional non-executive directors.
