BT Investment Management (BTIM) has recorded a strong half, reporting a 10 per cent increase in net profit after tax of $15.6 million.
BTIM chief executive Emilio Gonzalez (pictured) attributed the result to a higher market and continued positive institutional flows into the BT core business.
The result saw the directors declare an interim fully franked dividend of 6 cents per share.
Announcing the result to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the company said closing funds under management as at 31 March stood at $36.1 billion, compared to $36.3 billion at the same date last year and $35.4 billion at 30 September, 2010.
It said BTIM had recorded net outflows of $0.8 billion in the six months primarily from two lower margin sources – the Westpac retail ‘legacy’ book and institutional cash.
Discussing the company’s outlook, the company said the wholesale market remained a sector for the wealth management industry and afforded BTIM ‘substantial opportunities to grow revenue and margins”.
Gonzalez said the domestic economy was continuing to perform well with increasing investment in the resources sector continuing to underpin growth.
“The structural fundamentals of the fund management industry overall remain positive despite the current trend for investors to favour defensive assets, a trend which I believe will shift once better returns are recorded in the riskier asset classes,” he said.
