Royal Mail sell-off offsets Hargreaves annuity slump
THE Royal Mail shares sell-off helped offset a slump in annuity sales and send profits rising to record levels at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.
Nearly a fifth of people who took part in the Royal Mail privatisation did so through the company and of those 118,000 about a third were first-time investors.
Together with strong demand for TSB bank’s flotation it showed renewed enthusiasm for buying shares as the firm added 144,000 new clients, taking the total to 652,000.
Pre-tax profits for the year to the end of June rose by 7 per cent to an all-time high of £209.8million, while total assets under administration jumped 29 per cent to £46.9billion.
Investors’ appetite for shares has been buoyed by record low interest rates.
There are welcome signs of a return to stronger economic trading conditions
Chief executive Ian Gorham said: “There are welcome signs of a return to stronger economic trading conditions and greater capitalisation of banks has served to enhance stability across most markets.”
Annuity sales plunged by 41 per cent following changes in the Budget to give pensioners more freedom that was partly offset by a 29 per cent increase in the use of drawdown where savers take money out of their pension funds.
The group is increasing its total dividend by 8 per cent to 32p a share.
That is worth £45.7million and £22.6miliion respectively to co-founders Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown.
The shares fell 66p to 1073p.
