Investec, the Anglo-South African bank and wealth manager, said today its first-half profits would be flat due to lower UK investment and trading income.
Investec, which took over broking firm Evolution for £233 million at the end of last year, said the 15% fall in the rand against the pound would also hit its results, meaning operating profits in sterling will be lower than for the same period last year.
It said the South African business had performed ahead of the previous year and its smaller Australian business had moved back into profit as a result of fewer bad debts in its mortgage business.
The takeover of Evolution, including its wealth management business Williams de Broe, has pushed up costs by between 1% and 2% and is still likely to affect costs in 2013.
Williams de Broe moved on to Investec’s IT platform at the end of last month and the business has been rebranded as Investec Wealth & Investment with 15 offices around the UK.
Between the end of March and the end of August assets under management rose by 2% to £98.3 billion with net inflows of £1.7 billion.
Lending in the same period fell 3% to £17.7 billion which produced lower interest income.
Investec shares, which are listed in both London and Johannesberg, fell 7p to 388p.
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