Shares in FTSE 100 financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.) climbed by 2.62% to 1,872.88p (as of 14:45 BST) as pre-tax profits for the year ended 30th June improved by 24%. Revenues were up by 15% as assets under administration rose by 5% to exceed £100 billion.
CEO Chris Hill commented: “We have delivered a strong performance, despite an external environment of persistent challenge.
“The benefits of putting our clients at the heart of everything we do, combined with our investment in the scalability, diversity and resilience of HL’s business model, have been demonstrated through a record 188,000 net new clients, bringing total active clients to over 1.4 million and £7.7 billion of net new business, also a record.
“At the same time we have completed significant strategic initiatives including launching our new Wealth Shortlist and Fund Finder, as well as completing further work to enhance governance, scalability and resilience in our service to clients.
“Our priority has remained our colleagues and clients throughout this challenging period and I am proud of how we have responded. We have not furloughed our employees, enacted any redundancy programmes or sought any Government assistance.
“The acute challenges of this year have reinforced the importance of resilience for us all and we will continue to have a key role in helping our clients build resilience into their savings and investments to enable themselves to be confident to manage through difficult periods and events.
“Our focus on clients, the trusted relationships we have with them and the investment we have made to broaden and strengthen our proposition, means that we are strongly positioned to help our clients navigate through these unprecedented times. It also provides us with confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable and attractive growth and returns beyond the immediate period of uncertainty“.