The controversial privatisation of Royal Mail delivered a major boost to Bristol-based investment managers Hargreaves Lansdown with 27,000 new investors joining to buy shares in the sell-off, it revealed today.
In a trading statement to the London Stock Exchange Hargreaves Lansdown said a total of 77,000 new clients signed up to its investment services in the six months to December 31, which helped swell its Assets under Administration by £13bn over the year to £43.4bn.
Chief executive Ian Gorham said: “We have recruited more new clients in these six months than we did in the first six months of the financial years 2011, 2012 and 2013 combined.”
However, shares in the company, the UK’s largest online broker by market share, fell as analysts pointed out that today’s results fell short of expectations.
