Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2008

Williams de broë
Notwithstanding arguably the most difficult trading conditions in our
sectors for a generation, 2008 witnessed significant growth for our
private client investment management business, Williams de Broë.
Despite the stock market performance we were very active in this
division last year where we:
• Announced on 21 October 2008 the acquisition of the investment
management team of singer & Friedlander investment Management
limited ("sFiM"). The acquisition is proving very successful, and over
£1bn of assets under management have been transferred onto the
existing Williams de Broë regulatory platform.
• We opened a further office in Edinburgh which during the year has
seen a strong inflow of new clients; that is expected to continue into
2009. Williams de Broë now operates across seven offices in Bath,
Birmingham, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Exeter, Guildford and london.
• Despite the difficult market conditions of 2008, Williams de Broë’s
total income (before fee and commission expenses) increased by 10%
to £35.7m in 2008 (2007: £32.6m) demonstrating the impact of
our organic growth despite weaker transaction volumes in our sector.
Adjusted profit before tax of £4.8m decreased by 28% from £6.7m
in 2007. The decline in profitability during the year was primarily due
to higher initial costs relating to the new Edinburgh and singer &
Friedlander teams.
• Growth in assets under management (“AuM”), as with 2007, remains
a core focus within Williams de Broë. At 31 December 2008, total assets
under management reached a record level of £3.4bn, an increase of
21% from the £2.8bn at end of 2007. The acquisition of the sFiM
team and the new office in Edinburgh were instrumental in achieving
this growth.
• The successful migration of the sFiM business was supplemented by
another record performance from our discretionary sales team – further
vindicating our philosophy of discretionary intermediary distribution by
geographic location, which together with our investment managers,
won and introduced new assets under management totalling £493m
(2007: £471m) an increase of 5%.
CHIEF ExECUTIVE’S REPORT CONTiNuED
PRIVATE CLIENT INVESTmENT mANAGEmENT
08 THE EvOluTiON GROup plC ANNuAl REpORT & ACCOuNTs 2008
Products
With a heritage dating back to 1869, Williams de Broë is one of the uK’s
leading firms of investment managers and has successfully established
a business that has been built on the following core values:
• personal service – we have a personal service driven culture and our
ethos is to maintain investment managers dedicated to our individual
client’s needs;
• Bespoke by nature – we tailor our services to fulfil our individual
client’s specific investment objectives and risk criteria;
• sound investment process – we maintain a significant resource in our
investment process and have a strong focus to achieve investment
excellence;
• True independence – we select best of breed investments, which are
appropriate for our clients, without conflicts of interest. We also develop
close relationships with our professional intermediary partners; and
• Continues to improve the businesses infrastructure, back office and
compliance departments.
We were also delighted to receive the Five star service award in November
2008 at the Financial Advisor Magazine Awards. The service award is
recognised as a benchmark for service standards.
However, at the start of 2009 the difficult market conditions still prevail,
and whilst we remain differentiated from many of our competitors, there
is no room for complacency. Accordingly we are reviewing every aspect
of the Williams de Broë’s business in order to improve our performance
for the remainder of 2009 and beyond.