Shares in FTSE 250 wealth manager Quilter (LON:QLT) jumped 10.30% to 161.65p (as of 14:25 GMT) after the company posted preliminary results for 2020. The firm booked a post-tax profit of £89 million for the period versus a £21 million loss for 2019. Assets under management grew by 6.7% and asset retention rates improved by 400 basis points.
CEO Paul Feeney commented: “For all of us, 2020 was a year of extraordinary challenges, both personal and professional. At Quilter, I am pleased that we have not only come through the year well but also strategically and operationally stronger. The successful completion of our Platform Transformation Programme is a significant milestone. It not only proves our organisational capability to manage a project on this scale safely, but also sets us up for more accelerated growth in the huge UK wealth market. I was also pleased to have demonstrated our ability to outperform on cost expectations in challenging market conditions. We responded quickly to the changed environment in the second quarter by identifying tactical cost savings of £30 million and over-achieved against this target leading to a 3% decline in year-on-year costs despite other meaningful expense headwinds.
“None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of all my colleagues, right across the organisation, who have done a great job in exceptional and unusual conditions. I am also delighted that our work has been recognised across the industry through the various awards we have won this year. In particular, being named “Company of the Year” in the recent FT Adviser service awards, retaining Quilter Financial Planning’s spot as the UK’s number one financial advice firm. More recently, Quilter Cheviot was awarded wealth manager of the year by Professional Adviser.
“I am excited as I look out to 2021 and beyond. Since we Listed, our focus has been on transforming Quilter into the business we planned; a modern UK focussed wealth manager built around the core tenets of trusted financial advice, value for money, responsible and sustainable investment solutions and excellent customer service, all enabled and supported by the most advanced technology platform. Now with significant progress made on our transformation, we are wholly focussed on driving growth and efficiency through even better customer outcomes“.