Austock has reported another loss, but pledged to keep growing its financial planning business.
Financial services firm Austock has posted another full-year loss amid difficult market conditions, but said it would continue to grow its financial planning business.
The company incurred a net loss after tax of $5.8 million for the year ended June 2010, following a $20.9 million deficit in the prior corresponding period.
Austock's revenue declined 11.3 per cent to $35.5 million.
"The result was impacted by continued tough trading conditions, particularly in the second half," Austock said.
"Operating cash outflow was only $1 million, which shows the business has resilience to the weak operating environment and remains highly scalable with increased activity."
During the year, Austock made new appointments to its board and senior management team, with the key hire in February of former Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Australia head Paul Masi as its chief executive, replacing Tim Boyle who moved into a non-executive director role.
Despite the loss, the company planned to grow its private clients and financial planning business by boosting the number of advisers and geographic focus.
"[The] strategy will include attracting experienced advisers with existing client books, as well as training new advisers," Austock said.
There would also be a focus on increased revenue per adviser.
Austock's financial planning team has funds under advice of over $143 million.
The two non-consecutive alphabetic letters encountered most often last week caused more controversy than the underlying policy they represented, Wouter Klijn writes.... read more »
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