Hargreaves Lansdown stock soars despite fears over FSA
SHARES in Hargreaves Lansdown soared yesterday after the wealth manager reported high levels of new business and shrugged off concerns over the regulator’s industry review.
Hargreaves stock closed up 17.7 per cent at 508.5p after it said new contracts in July and August were up by a third on last year.
Founder Peter Hargreaves told City A.M. the firm would be able to change the way it works to preserve its volumes of work after the FSA banned some fund platform payments, causing shares to slump 12.7 per cent in a day last month.
“It only affects 25 per cent of our income although it does not mean we will lose 25 per cent of our income – we will have to get it in a different way.”
Yesterday, Hargreaves said his firm had won clients after they tried to contact their previous brokers and found them on holiday. The update came as the Bristol-based group reported a 46 per cent jump in pre-tax profits to £126m for the year to June.
Revenue rose 31 per cent to £207.9m and assets under administration were up 41 per cent at £24.6bn.