Strong performance in North America and Europe helped Canaccord Capital Inc. report record revenue and profits in fiscal 2005, although fourth-quarter figures declined.
The Vancouver-based investment dealer said Wednesday that revenue for the year ended March 31 was a record $432.8 million, up 7.6% from $402.2 million in 2004. Net income was also a record at $48.6 million ($1.11 per diluted share), up 20.2% from a previous record of $40.4 million ($1.12).
For the final three months of fiscal 2005, revenue fell 5.1% from a year ago to $142.9 million, and net income was off 17.6% to $17.3 million (38¢ per share). The company said the decline largely reflected “exceptionally strong market activity in Q4/04 relative to Q4/05, as Q4/04 was our second strongest quarter in history.”
“We generated record revenue of $433 million in 2005 through robust performance in North America and significant growth in Europe delivered by our Global Capital Markets team,” chairman and CEO Peter Brown said in a statement.
Canaccord, which completed its initial public offering last June, said it plans to seek a listing on the Alternative Investment Market in Britain, in addition to its listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, in a move that it said should provide shareholders “greater visibility, enhanced liquidity and a broader group of market comparables.”
AIM, a small-cap growth market and the junior arm of the London Stock Exchange, has been a strong source for the Vancouver-based company, which integrated the North American and European operations of its global capital markets group earlier this year.
Brown said the company is studying the possibility of expanding in the U.S. market “and maybe try to duplicate what we’ve done in Europe.”
“This is a strategy, rather than a business plan, to move toward actually financing European, Canadian and American securities and to develop over the next few years a truly global product for our clients,” Brown said in a conference call.
The company also said it will pay an 11¢ dividend for the quarter to shareholders of record May 25, up from its regular payment of 5¢ per share, bringing the total regular dividends paid for the year to the planned target of 25% of net income.
In the coming financial year, Canaccord plans to pay quarterly dividends of 6¢ per share.