Schroders profits surpass expectations

Schroders has announced a better than expected 35% profit-hike thanks to strong higher-margin product...

Schroders has announced a better than expected 35% profit-hike thanks to strong higher-margin product sales. The group said pre-tax profit has risen to £392m, from £290m in 2006, and assets under management rose from £128.5bn at the end of 2006 to £139.1bn at the end of last year. It increased its final dividend last year to 21p per share from 17.5p, bringing the total 2007 pay-out to 30p per share. After announcing the strong results today its shares, which have underperformed the FTSE 100 by 24% over the past three months, were 3.8% higher at 961.5p per share.