Mattioli Woods met its target for annual total revenue to exceed £50m by posting earnings of £50.5m for the year to 31 May, 2017 compared with £43m in 2016.
Organic revenue growth was 11.6% higher over the period, translating to over 1,200 new client wins across the firm.
Two months ago, the wealth manager had forecast that revenue for the year would sail past the £50m mark in what it called a “significant milestone” for the firm.
The strong revenue growth translated into an 11.4% rise in adjusted earnings per share to 34.1p, prompting the board to hike the final dividend to 9.4p per share.
This brought the total total dividend for the year to 14.1p, up 12.8% on the previous year.
The level of client assets was also up in line with Mattioli Wood’s initial predictions. Gross discretionary assets under management (AUM) from the investment and asset management operations grew 39.3% to £1.63bn, up from £1.17bn a year ago.
Total client assets climbed 17.5% to £7.77bn from £6.61bn.
In part, the growth in AUM can be attributed to a spate of acquisitions which included the pensions group MC Trustees and, most recently, a 49% stake in Edinburgh fund manager Amati Global Investors.
The firm has been vocal about the fact that it wants to continue to increase its geographical footprint through M&A opportunities.
Chief executive Ian Mattioli reiterated this point in the group’s final results: “Acquisitions remain a core part of our growth strategy,” he said.
“In September 2016, we were pleased to acquire MC Trustees bringing additional scale and expertise to our pension administration business, and the Group’s strategic investment in Amati in February 2017 brings a new dimension to our asset management business.
“Amati’s total funds under management have increased from £120m at acquisition to over £178m today,” he said.
“The five businesses acquired during the previous financial year have integrated well and all have contributed positively to the Group’s trading results since acquisition,” Mattioli added.
However, he said the group’s immediate focus was in ensuring it was fully compliant with the slew of new regulations coming down the pipeline, like Mifid II, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Senior Managers Regime.
These changes have seen the wealth manager slash the size of its board to three executive directors and non-executive directors, and create a separate senior executive team to carry out the strategy determined by its board.
“Improving client outcomes and reducing client costs are key objectives of ours and we strongly support the FCA’s objectives of increased transparency and better alignment of interests between fund managers and investors,” said Mattioli.
