Mint trims costs but profits still fall; Simplicity, Pathfinder, Salt lift revenue

Mint Asset Management's decision to transfer staff to Amplifi Management Services, which now charges Mint management fees, helped it cut costs 14.8% to $5.8 million in the year ended March 31.

Thursday, August 10th 2023, 4:38PM

by Jenny Ruth

Mint chief executive Rebecca Thomas says the company didn't cut staff - “I think two more than this time last year,” she says.

“We just kept costs more generally under control. We knew the market was difficult and revenue was lower, so just managed to keep discretionary expenses low.”

Revenue from fees fell 14.1% in the latest year to $7.7 million.

The pre-tax fall in profit was trimmed to a 13% decline to just below $2 million but a 50% jump in tax expense meant Mint's net profit fell 25.5% to $1.4 million.

Simplicity NZ managed to lift its fee income 8.3% to $12.8 million in the year ended March but its operating expenses jumped 17.7% to $11.4 million, leading to a 46.4% drop in net profit to $770,000.

The not-for-profit funds manager lifted staff costs 33.4% to $3.5 million and other expenses were up 24.4% to $4.8 million but marketing, advertising and social media costs were down 31.7% at $891,000.

Simplicity's charitable contributions rose 8.3% to $1.9 million in the latest year.

Both Pathfinder Asset Management and Salt Investment Funds managed to lift both their top and bottome lines in the year ended March.

Pathfinder, whose chair, Sandy Maier, is best known for managing the ill-fated South Canterbury Finance through its last days, almost doubled management fee revenue to $5.1 million and its bottom line more than doubled to $1.3 million.

While overheads and administration expenses more than doubled to $3.7 million, finance costs and tax expense both fell.

That allowed the company to pay shareholders $850,000 in dividends after no payout the previous year.

Salt's revenue was up 13.3% to $4.4 million and that was despite it receiving no performance fees after pocketing $945,553 the previous year.

However, total operating expenses were up 14.9% to $4.1 million. But the bottomline was positive after a 12.6% drop in tax expense. Net profit was up 2.8% to $238,362.

Salt paid $219,718 in dividends after a $129,874 payout the previous year.

Tags: Mint Asset Management