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WH Ireland today ditched its interim dividend as the City stockbroker remained stuck in the red due to the turmoil in the markets.
“Our securities arm is still struggling because of a lack of corporate finance activity. Few companies are coming to the market and client acquisition remains muted,” chief executive Richard Ford explained.
He remains cautious about the recent stock market recovery: “At first I thought it was a suckers' rally, but it has continued a lot longer than most of us in the City thought it would. My gut wants to believe it will last, but my head still urges caution.”
WH Ireland is looking to boost its private wealth management arm, which has proved more resilient to the downturn than the securities half of the business. “We are currently in negotiations about increasing our team,” Ford said. “Many people are dissatisfied with the services that the banks offer them, so we think this could be a major growth area for us.”
Pre-tax losses narrowed to £523,000 for the six months to the end of May, from £736,000 the previous year.
WH Ireland was hit by a writedown on the value of its Australian operations, but Ford is confident that this has now been turned around: “The writedown is a hangover from poor results there last year, but we have restructured the management team, so things are improving.”
Last year, WH Ireland paid an interim dividend of 1p a share.
