Charles Stanley fee income jumps 13% as AuM break record

Funds under management at Charles Stanley hit a fresh record in the final quarter of 2012, with improved investor sentiment resulting in a sharp rise in fee income and revenues.  

Total client funds under management rose by 4.6% in the three months to the end of December to stand at £16.36 billion.

Within this figure discretionary managed funds increased by 7.1% from £5.35 billion to £5.73 billion, comparing favourably to the 2.7% rise in the FTSE 100 and a 1.6% gain in the Apcims Balanced Portfolio index over the same period.

Revenue at the private client stockbroker, which is chaired by Sir David Howard (pictured), rose 13.5% during the quarter to £31.1 million. 'This is a good result but reflects a comparison with what was a very poor quarter last year,' the group told the market. 'Challenging market conditions and economic uncertainty had depressed financial activities and transaction volumes in the three months to December 2011.'

Overall revenue in the nine months to 31 December was 3.4% higher year on year.

Charles Stanley said that since the downturn between September and December 2011 transaction volumes had stabilised. This is reflected by the 14.1% increase in commission revenue in the final quarter of last year.  

At the same time fee income increased 13.1% over the comparable period in the previous year. Fee income now represents approximately 61% of the firm's revenue.

This improvement in revenue occurred across all divisions with financial services posting an increase of 14.8% and Charles Stanley Securities an increase of 16.2% compared with the same quarter last year.

Charles Stanley is confident it can continue to deliver in the uncertain conditions. 'We anticipate that economic and market conditions will remain uncertain but are confident that our broadly based business mix and financial strength will allow us to continue to produce a creditable performance,' the firm said.