Fisher Funds has recorded an after-tax profit of almost $22.4 million in the year to March 31, 2015, up more than $6 million on the previous period despite a fall in net income.
According to the Fisher accounts filed last week, the funds management group achieved the result on total net revenue of almost $60.9 million, compared to $63.7 million in 2014.
While management fees (net of rebates) rose from about $46.3 million to over $51 million in the 2015 year, Fisher booked performance fees of roughly $5.3 million in the latest accounts compared to almost $11.7 million in 2014. Year-on-year admin fees increased slightly from $3.8 million to $3.9 million.
“At 31 March 2015 performance fees not yet receivable totalled $4,903,300 (2014: $5,309,000),” the Fisher accounts says. “At the date of the signing of these financial statements, the performance fees have increased from $4,903,000 to $8,322,000.”
Milford Asset Management, which like Fisher favours a performance fee model, last month reported a post-tax profit of over $15 million in the 2014/15 year on fee revenue of $44.6 million, of which $20.3 million was classed as performance fees.
June 2015 FundSource figures show Milford total funds under management of about $3.3 billion compared to more than $6.6 billion for Fisher, although the latter has a higher proportion of wholesale money.
During the year Fisher cut expenses by more than $11 million compared to the 2014 period, chiefly due to a $4.8 million reduction in amortisation charges and slashing employee expenses from about $15.8 million to just under $12 million.
Over the annual period, Fisher also paid down more than $8 million of an almost $41 million ANZ loan, taken out in 2014 to fund the purchase of Tower Investments. The loan matures next April.
After making two major purchases over the last four years (Tower and Huljich), Fisher eased off the shopping spree in the latest reporting period, shelling out just $429,000 to acquire “future trail” and $359,000 to secure management rights.
In June 2014 Fisher bought the management rights to Diversified Wealth Management/Investment Strategies funds. Diversified reported fee revenue of $526,613 in the 12 months to end of March 2014 on funds under management of just over $20 million.
It is understood Diversified founder, Norm Stacey, has since filed legal action in relation to the sale.
Fisher also paid out $77,000 in “introduction fees” and $6,000 in commission to major shareholder TSB Bank over the 2014/15 year. TSB, which purchased about 26 per cent of Fisher in February 2013 for $32.8 million, promotes the Fisher KiwiSaver scheme through its bank network.