A 132 per cent increase in funds under management to $543 million by boutique Soul Funds Management helped its majority owner, Washington H Soul Pattinson and Company (WHSP), to a record $421.4 million net profit for 2004-05.
Souls, which is 63 per cent owned by WHSP, is planning an “expansion of staff and systems” for the 2005-06 financial year, according to a statement issued by the group today.
Souls, which started life in 1997 as Veritas Asset Management, partnered up with Soul Pattinson in 2003.
Over the past year, recognition of the group’s capability, particularly in small caps, has grown. Frank Villante, the former head of small caps at BT, is one of the boutique’s senior portfolio managers.
The group was a runner up in the Rising Star category of this year’s Money Management Fund Manager of the Year Awards.
It has also been appointed to manage 40 per cent of a small caps fund launched by Advance Asset Management last December.
It’s parent, WHSP’s net profit after tax for 2004-05 was almost three times the $155.9 million reported for the previous financial year.
Coal operations were the main contributor to the profit increase in 2004-05, assisted by solid gains from investments and merchant banking.
The company declared a fully franked final dividend of 15 cents per share for the year ended July 31, 2005, up three cents from the previous year.
There was also an additional fully-franked special dividend of five cents per share.
