The firm said total revenue for the three months to 30 June 2014 was close to flat compared with the same period last year at £37.3 million versus £36.9 million.
The directors noted there has been ‘poor performance’ of commission income which has been due to a 16.4% drop in transaction volumes down to £12.7 million.
In contrast to commission income, fee income was up from £21.7 million to £24.6 million for the period. Investment management fees were the biggest contributor to this moving up 21%, from £10 million to £12.1 million, reflecting changes to the firm’s charging structure.
The firm pointed to 2014 being a year of significant cost and investment in its future as mitigation for the performance, with profitability impacted by the acquisition of teams of investment managers, roll-out of Charles Stanley Direct and a programme of upgrading the quality of service.
Total client funds are now at £20.14 billion, up from £20.09 billion on 31 March 2014. Discretionary managed funds increased by 3.2% to £8.5 billion
Charles Stanley added that total revenues remain stable but due to the ‘cost of continuing investment in our future’ it is approaching the coming months with ‘considerable caution.’
