Dundee Bancorp Inc. on Friday announced soaring profit for the first quarter ended March 31. Earnings for the quarter were $13.2 million or 52¢ a share compared with earnings of $1.3 million or 5¢ per share for the same period in 2002.

Revenues for the quarter were $90.8 million, up from $64 million a year ago. Dundee said revenues increased in all operating lines, most significantly in investment income, where the company realized profits from the sale of certain marketable securities.

Dundee Bancorp is the parent company of Dundee Wealth Management Inc. In the wealth management division, management fee revenues during the first three months of 2003 were $37.4 million, an increase of $9.2 million from the $28.2 million earned in the same period of 2002. This increase is in large part due to the acquisition of DynamicNova, which occurred in October 2002.

Net sales of managed assets in the first quarter of 2003 were $33 million, before accounting for expected net redemptions of DynamicNova products of $128 million.

Financial service revenue was $31 million in the first three months of 2003 compared to $30.1 million in the same period of the previous year. In the first quarter of 2003, Dundee Wealth earned commission revenue of $22.6 million of which 85% (2002 – 87%) was generated by the retail division. Corporate finance revenue increased 28% in the first quarter of 2003 to $3.7 million with Dundee Securities participating in 36 financing transactions.

During the current quarter, the wealth management division paid an average commission rate of 4% on sales of units purchased on a deferred sales charge basis, for an aggregate of approximately $9 million.

Trailer fees paid by the company during the first quarter of 2003 were $7.4 million (2002 – $5 million), representing 0.4% of the average assets managed which are subject to trailer fees, or approximately 24% of total management fee revenues from these assets.