Losses in the AMP’s advice business have halved as the new leadership team continues to rebuild AMP’s evolved advice business.
AMP announced on Thursday morning that NPAT for its advice business in FY22 had improved to a loss of $68 million from a loss of $146 million the year before.
The advice business has continued to see drastic improvement since Alexis George took over as CEO in August 2021, later laying a specific target for the advice business to hit breakeven by FY24.
In the FY22 report, the advice business reported revenues of $56 million (down $2 million from FY21) which was impacted by the same of the employed business, but partially offset by higher licensee fees, growth in the equity investment portfolio and non-repeating impairments.
A 78 per cent reduction in variable costs to a $18 million loss, as well as a 25 per cent reduction in controllable costs to a $138 million loss made up for the slight revenue shortfall.
Revenue per practice was $1.59 million, which was a 4.6 per cent increase of the previous year.
For the platform business, underlying NPAT was $66 million (compared to $123 million in FY21) which was impacted by market volatility and valuation impacts on the North Guarantee.
There was a 31 per cent increase in inflows from independent financial advisers which has long been part of AMP’s strategy to expand the platform business, along with re-pricing initiatives and improving the platform’s functionality.
Platform assets under management stood at $65.5 billion (down from $71.1 billion in FY21), with the reduction due to market conditions which was partially offset with cash inflows of $936 million.
Whole package
Underling NPAT – AMP’s preferred measure for the whole business – is $184 million versus $280 million for FY21.
Statutory NPAT increased to $387 million, compared to a $252 million FY21 loss, which was supported by the sale of the infrastructure debt platform but offset by impairments announced last month.
With the sale of the infrastructure debt platform and the international infrastructure equity businesses completed, AMP said the next step is the completion of the sale of the real estate and domestic infrastructure equity business.
AMP chief executive Alexis George said the completion of these transactions enables AMP to become a simplified and more customer-focused business.
“Off the back of those transactions, we have committed to returning $1.1 billion of capital to shareholders, and I am pleased that we are able to deliver an FY22 final dividend to shareholders of 2.5 cents per share as part of that, in addition to the $350 million on-market share buyback that we currently have underway,” she said in a media release.
So much faux positivity swamped by reality with the share price tumbling to $1.15. Remember in 2000 when the share price was $8.00+ and AMP was a respected member of the financial world. Dreams. Sigh.