Anglo-South African wealth manager Investec PLC (LSE:INVP)’s shareholders were welcomed with good news today, as the FTSE 250-listed constituent announced a record dividend payout following a bumper interim earnings call.
Investec’s affluent book of high-net-worth clients supported an adjusted operating profit increase of 61.2% to £207.2 million compared to £128.6 million this time last year in the group’s UK segment.
Surging global interest rates gifted the specialist bank with double-digit growth in net interest income.
Firm-wide headline earnings per share increased by 15.3% year on year to 36.9p.
As a result, the board proposed an interim dividend of 15.5p per share, an increase of 14.8% from the prior period.
“The group has delivered strong results against a difficult macroeconomic backdrop which was characterised by high inflation, elevated global interest rates and persistent market volatility,” said group chief executive Fani Titi.
However, there were some dark spots in Investec’s earnings statement.
The company's impairment charges surged by 57%, and the credit-loss ratio, an indicator of non-performing loans in proportion to the overall loan portfolio, rose to 0.32%, nearing the higher limit of the group's target range of 0.25% to 0.35%.
The market had a mixed reaction to the results, with Investec’s London-listed shares (the group is also listed in Johannesburg) falling 2% following today’s update.