Perpetual's wealth advisory business, Perpetual Private, has recorded a pre-tax profit for the year to June 30 of $40.5 million, an 18 per cent increase on the previous financial year.
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It's the highlight of Perpetual's full-year results, which included an overall net profit of $137.3 million, up 4 per cent on the previous financial year. Revenue is also up by 4 per cent, to $515.4 million.
The result allows the financial services company to increase its final dividend to $1.35 a share, paid on September 29, to take the total dividend for the year to $2.65 a share, 4 per cent higher than the previous year.
Chief executive and managing director Geoff Lloyd said the big increase in Perpetual Private's profit was the result of adding clients - with four years of continuous growth in client numbers.
Its Fordham business, which is part of Perpetual Private and provides financial advice and services to private businesses and their owners, had increased its presence up the eastern seaboard and delivered significant revenue growth, Mr Lloyd said.
Perpetual Investments, the funds management arm and the biggest driver of profits, posted a pre-tax profit of $116.5 million, 1 per cent lower than the previous financial year.
"This was largely driven by lower performance fees and partially offset by higher average funds under management due to higher equity markets," Mr Lloyd said.
"In spite of challenging market conditions for active value investors, 88 per cent of our funds are in the first or second quartile [of performance] over five years, 100 per cent over seven years and 83 per cent over 10 years," he said.
Perpetual's reputation in funds management is mainly built on its funds that invest in Australian shares. The company is building its global equities capability.
Mr Lloyd said Perpetual's relatively new Global Share Fund had outperformed its benchmark by 4.8 percentage points over one year and by an annual average 3.5 percentage points over five years.
Perpetual's Corporate Trust business, which provides trustee services to the investment management industry, posted pre-tax profit of $36.7 million, 8 per cent higher than the previous year.
Mr Lloyd said the result was driven mostly by growth in managed funds services, underpinned by strong commercial property and infrastructure markets because of strong foreign investor fund flows into these sectors.
