UK retail brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown has released its financial results for fiscal 2023 (year ended June 30, 2023), indicating a 26% increase in Revenue and an even larger rise in profitability.

The company noted that in spite of the challenging backdrop, it has delivered robust financial performance. Hargreaves attracted £4.8 billion of net new business and a further 67,000 net new clients, taking total assets under administration and active client numbers to £134.0 billion and 1.8 million respectively.

As noted in the table above, Revenue for the full year was £735.1 million, up 26% on the prior year (2022: £583.0m). The company has seen continued base rate increases throughout the year and has passed over 85% of the benefit through to its clients over the last 12 months. Net interest margin has also increased as a result and Hargreaves said it is encouraging to see growth across all key revenue lines in the second half of the year.

The company has delivered spend in line with guidance with underlying costs of £314.6 million (2022: £284.7m). In addition, strategic spend in the year was £51.4 million (2022: £32.9m) of which £36.1 million was expensed and £15.3 million was capitalised.

Underlying Profit Before Tax increased 47% to £438.8 million (2022: £297.5m) and Statutory Profit Before Tax increased by 50% to £402.7 million (2022: £269.2m).

The dividend for the financial year has increased 4.5% to a total dividend of 41.5p for the full year, reflecting this year’s positive financial performance.

Hargreaves’ CEO Dan Olley commented:

“We have delivered a robust financial performance for our full year in what continues to be a challenging broader economic environment. We welcomed a further 67,000 net new clients meaning we now support over 1.8 million with their savings and investments needs, with client retention stable at over 92%. We saw notable growth into our Active Savings proposition which continues to show the benefits of our diversified business model as we give our clients access to competitive rates for their cash. We delivered revenue growth of 26% year-on-year with cost growth within the guided range delivering a statutory profit of £402.7 million, up 50% on 2022.

As I begin my CEO tenure, it is clear to me that at its core this is a strong business with fantastic heritage that has significant potential to benefit from the structural, demographic, and regulatory shifts in the UK and the expected growth in the wealth market.

My early focus is to ensure we are set up to capture this growth opportunity, that we have pace of execution, cost discipline as we travel on this journey, and that we are giving our people the best opportunity to deliver for our clients and shareholders.”

Hargreaves Lansdown’s full release of 2023 figures and performance can be seen here.