City office is still on the radar of Williams de Broë

Philip Howell said the private client wealth manager would ideally acquire a business with an office in Yorkshire, rather than opening from scratch in the region.

“We have a lot of clients from the region, but served from Birmingham, London and Edinburgh,” he said.

“It’s a very affluent area but we want an office in between Birmingham and Edinburgh.

“Leeds and Manchester are the two contenders.”

Williams de Broë, which was bought by Evolution Group in 2006, yesterday reported on a year of growing assets and a more than doubling of profits.

It reported operating profits of £8.8m for 2010, compared with £4.1m a year earlier. Its assets under management soared 12 per cent to a record £5.8bn and income increased 21 per cent to £51.5m.

“It’s proved the business model is well-balanced,” said Mr Howell, adding acquisitions as well as organic growth are in its sights.

However, Williams de Broë’s performance was not enough to stop Evolution Group sliding to a £2.6m pre-tax loss, compared with £11.1m profits a year earlier.

The group’s investment banking arm, which has an office in Leeds, saw its income slide by a third to £57.9m. The division slumped to a £3.1m operating loss, compared with operating profits of £18.5m in 2009.

Evolution Securities’ corporate clients, which include Yorkshire firms UK Coal, Henry Boot, Abbeycrest and EMIS, increased by one to 77. It helped clients raise a total £1.16bn in 2010 compared with just £451m a year earlier.

Evolution blamed the slide on “difficult and volatile markets” and said 2011 looks tough.

“Signs of renewed confidence seen towards the end of 2010 and early 2011 taking hold and gathering momentum look to have been short-lived as the current renewed market instability underlines,” said group chief executive Alex Snow.

“This ongoing uncertainty in market conditions looks unlikely to resolve itself in the short term and will provide a continuing challenging trading environment.

“Nonetheless, the current pipeline of transactions and opportunities to win mandates is strong and, although subject to the risk of severe market-wide dislocation and renewed risk aversion, when combined with a relentless focus on cost discipline and productivity provides us the opportunity to grow shareholder returns in the short term.”

With cash of £90.1m, a growing corporate client list and several initial public offerings in the pipeline, he insisted the group’s stronger structure will become apparent in more benign markets.

Evolution said it will pay a final dividend of 1.75p per share, up three per cent on a year ago.

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