Soula Cargakis

Centrepoint Alliance Limited (ASX Code: CAF) (‘Centrepoint’ or the ‘Group’) announced it has grown EBITDA from core continuing operations, excluding one-off expenditure, by 9% to $2.4m from the prior comparable period (pcp). Centrepoint also announced a fully franked interim ordinary dividend of 1.2 cents per share.

Centrepoint continues to deliver to its strategic plan by transforming its Wealth business with Alliance Wealth (licensed advice) and Associated Advisory Practices (self-licensed advice) attracting 90 new quality firms to the Group in the past two years.

Centrepoint’s Funds under Management and Administration (FUMA) increased 14% to $3.9bn on pcp – with gross inflows consistently above $500m – and its Managed Account solution continues to see strong support with balances increasing 83% over the 12 months to $434m.

Significant investments were made during the year into new advice technology, additional outsourced services for advice firms, marketing, and salaried advisers. This, along with an additional legacy claims provision relating to financial product advice given prior to 1 July 2010, the announced appointment of Angus Benbow as CEO, and the decision to unwind the executive loan share schemes resulted in a net loss after tax of $0.8m.

Soula Cargakis, Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our core business continues to strengthen in terms of the depth and breadth of solutions – all of which are focused on the clients’ best interest. We have a strong platform and we are looking forward to Angus Benbow joining the business as CEO to lead the next stage of growth.”

Further strategic investments were made in the development of Neos Life – an Australian based life insurance business which will offer well rated, client focused life insurance products through financial advisers. Additionally, Centrepoint’s investment in a Chief Investment Officer will shortly result in the launch of Presidium portfolios which will strengthen our solutions for clients and advisers.

The Chairman, Alan Fisher, noted, “The underlying results are a reflection of strong employee engagement and better client outcomes – this continues to differentiate Centrepoint. There is a great opportunity to increase growth and continue to drive improvements across all areas of our business to improve the experience for our advisers and their clients.”

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