IOOF’s record profit
Financial services group IOOF has attributed much of its record profit for the past financial year to “adviser-driven growth” in its flagship platforms.
The company announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today a 62 per cent increase in underlying net profit after tax of $97.2 million, which managing director Chris Kelaher said illustrated the company’s ability to grow its business even when markets were volatile.
Kelaher also claimed that the result reflected the benefits of the company’s so-called “business simplification” program – following its merger with Australian Wealth Management and acquisition of Australian Skandia – which had involved consolidation of multi-manager offerings and a reduction in platform administration systems.
The strong result has come at the same time as IOOF has emerged as a central player in National Australia Bank’s bid for AXA Asia Pacific, with IOOF having been named as the destination for AXA’s North Platform if the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission agrees to the divestment proposal.
Looking over the horizon, Kelaher said that while prevailing market conditions made it difficult to accurately forecast a future result, IOOF expected to report an improvement in profitability for the first half of the 2010-11 financial year.
Kelaher did not reference the issues surrounding the North Platform divestment in his formal comments to the ASX.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
In the latest episode of Relative Return Insider, host Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and AMP’s Shane Oliver break down US and Australian rate cuts, soaring gold, and bitcoin’s volatility.
In the latest episode of the Relative Return Insider, host Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver unpack the surprising twists in the Australian economy, diving into the latest GDP numbers, what’s really driving consumer spending, and what it all means for the Reserve Bank’s next moves.
In this episode of Relative Return, host Laura Dew chats with Roy Keenan, co-head of fixed income at Yarra Capital Management, to discuss the evolving fixed income asset class, his sector preferences, and the RBA’s rate-cutting policy.
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver joins the show to dissect the ongoing government economic reform roundtable and reflect on the wish lists of industry stakeholders – and whether there is hope for meaningful reform.
