Turbulence in the Far East takes its toll on Jardine Fleming profits

Flemings, one of the UK's few remaining independent investment banks, yesterday admitted that turbulence in the Far East had cost it millions of pounds.

But the bank, which is privately owned - one third of shares still belong to the Flemings family - remains committed to its independence. "We like being independent and private", said William Garrett, chief executive.

"Difficult market conditions" caused a 40 per cent fall in first half profits at the beleaguered Jardine Fleming, the bank's Hong Kong-based joint venture. Profits in the six months to September at Jardine Fleming were pounds 15m, some pounds 10m down on last year. But despite a cautious Asian outlook in the short to medium term, Mr Garrett took an optimistic longer term view. "Asia is a great part of the world in which to invest in the long term."

The chief executive added that Flemings had no intention of scaling down its Asian operations. "We are more likely to be adding resources in some of the areas."

Outside Asia, the picture was brighter. Asset management "recorded a significant increase in profits", and traditional banking had a "record half". Overall, profits rose by 6 per cent to pounds 91m, and the interim dividend edged up 0.5p to 8.5p.