Market conditions hit WH Ireland hard, with its wealth management arm seeing assets under management (AUM) plummet 12.5% to £2.1bn in the first half of its financial year.
The decline was underpinned by a £200m fall in discretionary AUM to £1bn in the six months to 30 September 2022.
In the firm’s last annual report in March, chief executive Phillip Wale (pictured) described the economic and global environment as the most “volatile and testing” of his career. This time around, he again attributed the losses to the effects of 2022’s market conditions.
Wale highlighted the fall in markets and a drop off in transactions on the Alternative Investments Market (Aim) as factors that particularly affected the firm’s capital markets and wealth management divisions.
The group as a whole generated £14.3m in revenue for the period, marking a 15.9% fall when compared with H1 2021. This was largely due to a £2m decline in the capital markets division, while the wealth management arm’s revenue was also down slightly on the previous period.
Factoring in administrative expenses led to a £348,000 operating loss.
Wale said: “Our first half was impacted as expected by the fall in markets and drop off in transactions on Aim. In the circumstances, we reported a relatively resilient performance and continued to develop the group through selective recruitment and complementary new services, such as our debt capital markets team who completed another transaction this week.
“With a continued focus on operational efficiencies, and the further development of our new and existing offerings, I believe we are well placed to take advantage of a market recovery.”
