Profits up 25 per cent at Fleming
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Robert Fleming, one the City's few remaining family-controlled investment businesses, yesterday sounded a defiantly independent note as it announced a 25 per cent rise in profits for last year.
William Garrett, chief executive, said: "Independence is the watchword around here. Most of our successful rivals around the world are independent, particularly the US investment banks."
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch were some of the bank's nearest competitors, he said.
There have been suggestions the family, which controls around a third of the shares, would like to sell. But Mr Garrett said: "The family's position is that they like things as they are."
There were no plans to sell out to a bigger group as other City merchant banks had done, including Kleinwort Benson, which was taken over by Dresdner Bank of Germany, or SG Warburg, swallowed up by Swiss Bank Corporation, Mr Garrett said. He was speaking as Fleming announced a bounce-back in pre-tax profits to pounds 168m for the year to March, up from pounds 134m the previous year, but not quite matching the pounds 172m reported in 1995. A 14 per cent rise in the dividend takes it to 25p a share for the year.
The results would have been a record, but for the scandal-hit Jardine Fleming fund management joint venture in Hong Kong. Fleming saw its share of profits slump from pounds 50.5m to pounds 37.7m after JF was forced to pay out pounds 12.4m to compensate investors after a fund manager at the group was found to have diverted deals for his own account.
The business had lost some customers, with funds under management dipping to just under $20bn (pounds 12bn) from a peak of around $22bn, but clients were coming back, Mr Garrett said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments