Wealth manager and Financial Planner WH Ireland is beginning to show signs of recovery after a £5m rescue deal thrashed out in the summer saved the company from being wound up.

In final results for the year ended March, published today, chief executive Phillip Wale said the company could be back to break-even in the current financial year after making heavy losses.

For the year ended March the firm made a pre-tax loss of £1.8m compared to a profit of £8,000 the previous year.

The company’s wealth management arm has already returned to profitability during the year, the company said, despite revenue dropping by £1.4m to £14.4m (FY 2022: £15.8m). The drop was due mainly to a fall in commission income.

The firm said the wealth division returned to profitability during the year on an underlying and statutory basis.

The wealth arm now has fee income representing 89% of total wealth management income (FY 2022: 84%). Discretionary Fund Management (DFM) assets were stable at £1bn (FY2022: £1.02bn) although total wealth management AUM was down £0.2bn at £1.4bn (FY2022: £1.6bn).

Cost cutting completed this month saved the business £3.8m and help boost stability, the firm said. About 30 staff have left the company this month with cuts in capital markets, wealth management and support and back office. The company expects further reductions in headcount, which was 159 before the job losses. No offices have been closed.

However, the company is not out of the woods yet and the firm’s share price has fallen by over 75% this year to trade at 5.78p in early trading today.

CEO Phillip Wale said: “The market backdrop has been extremely challenging. While the FTSE 100 was relatively resilient compared with overseas exchanges, the AIM market fell 22% over the period and this severely impacted transactional business (and particularly fundraisings) in our Capital Markets business.

“Following the fundraise in July, we have a stable platform to navigate challenging markets and to take advantage of better market conditions in future. After significant first half losses, the completion of our cost reduction programme gives us the opportunity of returning to a break-even position in the remainder of the financial year.”

In August WH Ireland shareholders voted to back a £5m fund-raising move to help stabilise finances at the troubled firm. WH Ireland warned that it was in danger of being wound up if the deal had not gone ahead.

As part of the cost-cutting deal, Mr Wale is taking a 30% pay cut in return for share options. Other senior executives, including head of wealth management Michael Bishop, also agreed to take pay cuts. Job losses and other staff pay cuts were also on the cards.

The firm held discussions with the FCA about its financial position which could have resulted in the company being wound up if the summer share placing was unsuccessful.