SINGAPORE (Feb 17): iFAST Corp reported a 59.9% fall in 4Q16 earnings to $1.1 million from a year ago, bringing FY16 earnings down 55% to $5.4 million.
iFAST says market conditions were 'very tough”, especially in the first half of the year.
The group’s profitability was affected, with the net profit for the group (excluding China) declining 25.5% y-o-y to $9.74 million.
This was excluding a one-off impairment loss of $0.68 million on investment in financial assets in 4Q16, which was mainly due to a mark-to-market loss following a decline in market value of certain equity and fixed income unit trusts acquired in FY15.
The start-up losses in the China operation, which was soft-launched in March 2016, stood at $3.61 million in FY16.
In 4Q, revenue rose 3.9% to $21.5 million while commission and fee paid or payable to third party advisers fell 0.1% to $10.6 million. Other income rose 8.1% to $10.9 million.
However net finance income fell 22.3% to $0.2 million while share of results of associates made a loss of $70,000 compared to $9,000 a year ago.
iFAST is proposing a final dividend of 0.75 cent per share, bringing total dividend to 2.79 cents for FY16.
Looking ahead, iFAST expects growth of assets under administration and revenue to benefit from stockbroking services starting this year, as well as additional services such as discretionary portfolio management services and bonds.
The group also expects its China operations to remain loss-making in 2017, as the group continues to invest in growing the business.
Shares of iFAST closed at 88 cents.
