Wealth manager WH Ireland has returned its first profit in five years in its final results for the year ended 31 March.

Profit before tax was £1m, in comparison to a £3.3m loss the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA was £3m, a big jump from the £0.9m loss recorded in 2020.

Revenue for the wealth management group increased 37% to £29.6m (2020: £21.6m).

Group assets under management increased 40% to £2.1bn (2020: £1.5bn). Of these assets, £1.6bn are from the wealth management division.

Earnings per share were 2.47p (2020: 7.38p loss).

WH Ireland said the improved results were driven by a continued improvement in the quality of the wealth management business over the year, with fee income now representing 76% of total wealth management income (2020: 72%).

Costs for the wealth management division also declined by 2% to £10.9m (2020: £11.1m), despite costs associated with the acquisition of Harpsden Wealth Management Ltd.

Discretionary managed assets increased 81% to £1.0bn (2020: £0.5bn).

Group headcount increased to 158 from 148 in 2020, due primarily to the acquisition of Harpsden with its headcount of 19.

Philip Shelley, chair of WH Ireland, said: “Perhaps most importantly, the WH Ireland team now have a robust platform on which to build a much bigger business, that can deliver sustainable growth.

“Our ambition, that we laid out last October, to grow our discretionary assets under management to £3bn and our Capital Markets Division into a business that can grow revenue to £20m a year, is very much on track.

“Our discretionary funds under management have continued to increase, despite the sale of our IOM business during the year. This has been helped by the acquisition of Harpsden, by the return of the group to net inflows and more positive markets. Our Capital Markets business has made significant progress as the combination of a growing client base and a successful return to the IPO market drove increased revenue.”

The firm said that M&A activity will be important to the expansion plans for the wealth management firm.

The firm the year ending March 2022 to be another year of growth for the business as it sees the benefits of strengthening its Financial Planning and investment management capabilities.

Phillip Wale, CEO of WH Ireland, said 2020 was a key year for the group’s wealth management operations. He said: “This has been a pivotal year for wealth management. Following a year of cost reduction, legacy system elimination and control framework  improvement, coupled with the rationalisation of non-optimal teams and offices and the repricing of the wealth management offerings, the division was able to grow with the acquisition of Harpsden.

“The group has faced a unique combination of challenges throughout the year. The business and our employees have performed extremely well, and the result is the delivery of our first profit in five years. Pleasingly, the targets I set over the past 3 years are being met as we enter the growth phase in our plan to return the Company to sustainable profitability, and over the next three years to achieve meaningful levels of growth in AUM and in profitability. The year has started well with the final stages of the Harpsden integration proceeding better than we had expected and with the Capital Markets Division continuing the progress it made last year. We therefore look forward with confidence to the remainder of the year.”