LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Hargreaves Lansdown increased its interim dividend as the company reported a 10% rise in first-half profit and attracted younger investors.
The FTSE 100 investment platform's pretax profit rose to £188.4m from £171.1m in the six months to the end of December as revenue increased 16% to 299.5m.

Hargreaves Lansdown attracted £3.2bn of net new business compared with £2.3bn a year earlier and £7.7bn in all of the previous financial year. Assets under administration rose 16% from the end of the previous financial year to 120.6bn.

The company raised its interim dividend 6% to 11.9p a share and said it would pay special dividends when it had spare cash.

First-half profit was driven by a 123% increase in equity trading as investors responded to news about Covid-19 and the UK's Brexit trade deal. The company also said younger customers were supporting growth with 47% of new clients aged between 30 and 54.

Hargreaves Lansdown said trading in January was similar to other lockdown periods with strong dealing volumes, "robust" net new business and new client numbers.

Chris Hill, Hargreaves Lansdown's chief executive, said: As our client numbers continue to grow, we are finding that younger people are taking a greater interest in investing for the future, with the average age of our clients continuing to fall. Covid-19 has underpinned the importance of financial resilience."

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