The Openwork Partnership today announces an update on its trading performance for the six months to 30 June 2022 and announces its Dividend in respect of the financial year to 31 December 2021.
Trading update to 30th June 2022
Philip Howell, Chief Executive Officer said:
“The first six months of 2022 have provided a challenging backdrop for the UK wealth and advice industries. Volatile global equity markets combined with an inflation driven cost-of-living crisis have had an impact both on consumer sentiment and our underlying financials. Such conditions, however, give us an opportunity to demonstrate the value of the advice that we give to customers to support their long-term goals.
“The breadth of our offering has counterbalanced the impact of falling and volatile financial markets on our results. Despite the macroeconomic challenges, The Openwork Partnership delivered a resilient performance in the first half of the year, with Revenues increasing 9% year-on-year and profits remaining broadly in line with last year at £15.2m.
“The increase in adviser numbers also demonstrates the value that advice firms find in joining an established network such as The Openwork Partnership, both operationally and as a model for ownership.”
Key performance highlights include:
- Total adviser numbers are now 4,581, up 5% on last year (H1 2021: 4,364)
- Revenues are up 9% year on year at £254.5m for H1 2022 (H1 2021: £233.8m)
- Mortgage lending in the half reached another record high at £11.8bn (H1 2021: £11.6bn) despite the boost to last year’s numbers from Stamp Duty Land Tax relief
- Having started the year at £10.6bn, having grown from £9.7bn at the end of H1 2021, Omnis AuM fell to £9.6bn at H1 2022, due to market pressures. However, our performance against peers continues to hold up well, with 58%i of our funds outperforming over five years
- Adjusted Profitii remained broadly flat compared with last year at £15.2m (H1 2021: £15.4m); we have improved commercial terms with some of our partners and continue to invest for the Future in technology and people
- Cash reserves remain high at £88.3m despite ongoing investment and the challenging backdrop
Announcement of Dividend
Given the resilience shown by the business during what has been a challenging period and reflecting the Board’s confidence in our business strategy we are today announcing an interim dividend of £11.11 a share (2021: £6.67 a share).
This represents a dividend payment of £10.0m to participating shareholders (2021, £6.0m, 2020 £3.0m). This is in line with our progressive dividend policy and represents a 67% increase on last year and a 233% increase on the dividend two years ago.
We believe that this is a strong indication of our financial strength, the consistency of our trading performance and balances the need for investment with delivering returns to our shareholders.
We now believe we are approaching more normalised dividend levels for a business of our scale and profitability but continue to expect to be able to deliver on our progressive dividend policy subject as always to the prevailing market and investment decisions of the business.
In addition to the dividend of £10.0m to participating shareholders, the company expects to distribute approximately £1.0m of value to recipients of LLP units and company shares under our ownership schemes for Partners and senior colleagues.
This value will be transferred when the units and shares vest, in accordance with scheme rules. The combination of these value equivalents and the core dividend amount to a pro forma capital distribution of approximately £11.0m (2021 £6.1m).