Tough times send Bedlam Asset Management into loss

Bedlam Asset Management has slashed bonuses and cut dividends after suffering £68,000 in annual losses.

According to documents filed with Companies House, in the year ending 31 December 2007 operating losses, pre-tax, stood at £68,000, a significant fall from last years profits of £849,000.

The firm attributed the losses to the cost of fund launches in 2006, a number of new hires, changes in marketing and an office move.

The firm also filed more than £283,00 of costs under ‘exceptional items’; namely an aborted investment trust launch earlier in the year and redundancy and termination fees.

The staff bonus pool has consequently shrunk from £795,000 last year to £146,000 this year.

Dividends have been cut entirely.

The move falls in line with Bedlam’s claim that staff and shareholders of the company are ‘truly aligned’ as staff are not phenomenally well remunerated and there is a high reliance on bonuses which are paid only when investors have enjoyed good returns.

Despite annual losses, funds under management increased from £212 million in 2006 to £238 million in 2007.

The firm's managing director Jonathan Compton said 2007 had seen a significant re-focusing by the company which negatively affected results.

However, he felt Bedlam had been one of the best companies at anticipating the ‘mind-numbing’ changes in financial markets thus leading to an absence of holdings in any bank shares in the UK and any insurance companies worldwide.