In the firm’s financial results for the three months to 31 December, it said wealth management operations in Australia generated $21.2 million in revenue, an increase of 31 per cent compared to the prior corresponding period.
Fee-related revenue accounted for 43 per cent of this.
Canaccord Genuity is headquartered in Canada and has seven offices in Australia nationwide covering wealth management for individual investors and private clients and capital markets advisory.
The growing focus on its wealth management operations is helping to reduce the firm’s reliance on its underwriting business.
Client assets in Australia were $9.1 billion which the firm attributed to net new assets, up 34 per cent year on year.
The firm said it has “significantly invested” in growing its wealth management operations in Australia, both via organic and inorganic means, and had hired 10 advisers during the year to bring total advisers to 126.
Priority growth drivers for the firm’s operations in Australia, it said, are adviser recruitment, growing its fee-based assets, adviser development, systems and technology uplift, and increasing brand awareness.
Global wealth management revenue increased by 19.7 per cent year-over-year to CA$233.4 million ($259 million) and total global client assets were CA$115 billion.
However, the success in the wealth management business failed to prevent the firm from reporting an overall loss for the quarter of CA$11.6 million compared to a gain of CA$28 million a year ago.
“During our third fiscal quarter, our wealth management division set new records for revenue and client assets and we also benefitted from improved corporate financing activity in most of our geographies,” said Dan Daviau, chairman and chief executive of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc.
“Despite solid revenue growth, our profitability for the three-month period was affected by certain elevated non-compensation expenses which are not expected to continue at the same levels. Our outlook for the balance of the fiscal year is cautiously optimistic as we expect to see stronger financial performance driven by the strengthening backdrop for capital markets activities and a continuance of growing contributions from wealth management.”
