Arbuthnot Banking Group – audited final results for the year to 31 December 2020
Arbuthnot Banking Group today announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2020.
Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC is the holding company for Arbuthnot Latham & Co., Limited.
Financial highlights
- (Loss)/Profit Before Tax (£1.1m) (2019: £7.0m) – excluding acquisition costs, the business broke even in 2020
- Operating income steady at £72.5m (2019: £72.5m)
- Earnings per share negative 8.9p (2019: 41.2p)
- No dividend declared for 2020**
- Net assets £194m (2019: £208m)
- Net assets per share 1270p (2019: 1364p)
- Total capital ratio 18.7% (2019: 17.3%)
Operational highlights
Arbuthnot Latham
- Profit before tax and group recharges of £8.3m (2019: £16.2m), a decrease of 49%
- Average net margin at 4.1% (2019: 4.5%)
- Customer loans decreased 1% to £1,588m (2019: £1,599m)
- Customer deposits increased 13% to £2,365m (2019: £2,085m)
- Assets under management increased 4% to £1,147m (2019: £1,107m) driven by both strong net inflows and investment performance
- Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending profit has paid back start-up losses incurred; a strong year of progress saw it grow customers by 60%, drawn balances by 50% and facility limits by 82% in 2020
- All employees successfully worked remotely as the Bank operated well during the pandemic
- Installed new CRM system, linked to upgraded website in support of digital marketing initiatives
- Agreed acquisition of commercial truck leasing business, Asset Alliance, which incurred £1m of transaction costs accounted for in 2020***
During First Quarter 2021
- Completed sale of £55m residential mortgage portfolio generating a gain of £2.2m
- Took the decision to close Dubai representative office. Relationships will be managed from London
- Declared special dividend of 21p, paid on 19 March 2021, in respect of the withdrawn 2019 final dividend
Commenting on the results, Sir Henry Angest, chairman and chief executive of Arbuthnot, said: “In a year in which the pandemic and associated lockdowns impacted businesses, Arbuthnot delivered a resilient performance and continued to make good operational progress. After a positive start to 2020, growth in lending balances and profits paused from the onset of the lockdown, as historically low base rates and a prudent reduction in the Bank’s credit appetite took their toll. It was however pleasing to see that whilst our growth may have paused, the bank did not. Our technology enabled us to serve clients remotely, whilst we also relaunched our website linked to a newly-developed CRM system, and delivered a well-received evolution of the Arbuthnot Latham brand.
We also had considerable success in growing our client base, with the Bank opening a significant number of new accounts in 2020, which in turn contributed to the good growth in deposits. This progress, together with growing demand for lending and the increased diversity of our business following the acquisition of Asset Alliance, leaves us well placed to resume our growth.”
