Profits slip at Brooks Macdonald despite rising assets and revenue

'Sticky inflation pressures'

Profits have dropped at Brooks Macdonald despite a strong year of net inflows and rising funds under management, as tough market conditions and inflationary cost pressures bite.

Although FUM grew 7.5% to £16.8bn and the firm enjoyed positive net flows in every month of the year to 30 June 2023, contributing 5.2% of the boosted assets, underlying profit before tax took a 12.2% hit and fell to £30.3m, according to its final year results published today (14 September). Both acting chair Richard Price and CEO Andrew Shepherd cited increased market volatility and "sticky inflation pressures" to explain the weaker profits, although were complimentary of the firm's investment performance of 2.3%, which beat the MSCI PIMFA Private Investor Balanced index's return of 1.6...