TheDeakin Financial Servicesgroup has indicated that it will record a loss in the current financial year as it looks to bed down an ambitious growth strategy.
Deakin executive chairman, Rob Hunwick, said at the group’s annual general meeting yesterday that its expansion drive would result in one-off expenses in the order of $1 million, impacting on the company’s profitability in the current financial year.
The expansion strategy includes the launch of Deakin’s new wrap, the Deakin Smartplan, which is scheduled to be released next February.
Deakin has also previously set itself an ambitious target to attract 200 financial planners by the end of the current financial year as part of a program to expand its business across the country.
However Hunwick said the group was unlikely to meet this target.
“It needs to be noted that we are now operating in a fiercely competitive environment for these advisers,” Hunwick says.
Deakin currently has some 110 planners on its books.
Deakin scraped into the red to record a small $31,000 profit for the 2001/2002 financial year.
The result was a dramatic turnaround on the 2000/2001 financial year, when Deakin recorded an $11.6 million loss.
