HARNESSING OUR COMBINED STRENGTHS TO DRIVE GROWTH 

Paul Stockton, Group Chief Executive, said: 

"2024 has been a very exciting year for the Group as we began in earnest to bring Rathbones and IW&I together as one combined business committed to helping our clients achieve their longer-term financial goals. In an eventful year, we attracted record gross inflows by leveraging our enlarged platform, grew underlying operating margin, exceeded the 2024 synergy targets we set out for the IW&I combination, and increased our dividend by 6.9%. 

Throughout the year, we have continued to improve our services and investment processes, taking advantage of the best that the Rathbones and IW&I teams have to offer. The combination creates some significant future growth opportunities and provides a pathway to greater innovation as ideas are shared and acted upon. I am grateful for the efforts of all teams around the Group who have helped us start 2025 in such a strong position. 

Rathbones remains well-equipped to navigate the challenges associated with industry change and the potential impacts of geopolitical instability on investment markets. Alongside initiatives to enhance our services to clients and improve organic growth rates, our priorities for 2025 include completing the migration of IW&I clients and fully integrating our businesses onto one platform." 

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS 

2024 is the first full financial year following the combination with IW&I. The increase in operating income, profit and earnings per share reported this year reflects the benefits of the combination and the extent to which our delivery of the related synergies have exceeded the targets we set for 2024. The comparative figures for 2023 include three months of IW&I’s contribution from 1 October 2023, reflecting the timing of the completion of the combination. 

• FUMA reached £109.2 billion at 31 December 2024 (31 December 2023: £105.3 billion), including £43.0 billion from IW&I. 
• We have made significant progress during the year in our ambition to grow our underlying operating margin, which has increased to 25.4% (2023: 22.3%) as we continue to realise the benefits of our increased scale. 
• Underlying profit before tax increased 79.1% to £227.6million (2023: £127.1 million). 
• Profit before tax increased by 72.9% to £99.6 million (31 December2023: £57.6 million), largely reflecting acquisition and integration costs related to the combination with IW&I, along with higher amortisation charges following the transaction. 
• We have delivered cost and revenue synergies well ahead of our first year £15 million target, with run-rate synergy realisation of £30.1 million at the end of 2024. This was largely due to organisational changes and our property consolidation programme being secured ahead of the planned timeframe. 
• The Rathbones and IW&I combination made significant progress in 2024. The client consent process is nearly complete, and we expect to migrate almost all c. 55,000 IW&I clients by the end of H1. To date, 0.3% have declined to migrate to Rathbones, and we expect a small proportion of relationships to leave the Group where a suitable proposition is not available. We remain focused on maintaining high client service levels and look forward to welcoming clients to the Rathbones platform in the coming months. 
• During the year, we completed the integration of Saunderson House, creating a business model that now includes a well established financial planning capability to complement our investment strengths. 

FOCUSING ON GROWTH 

Although much of our recent focus has been on ensuring that the benefits of the combination are realised, we have also taken some significant steps toward improving organic growth rates. 

We continue to believe that relationship-led services are the best way to secure high quality, resilient future revenues so alongside our pursuit of efficiencies to optimise delivery costs and enhancements to our investment process, we are working to: 

• Strengthen our marketing and distribution capability 
• Deliver more advice-led conversations whilst working flexibly to provide investment only services to third-party advisors 
• Improve client choice with services that meet their changing demands 
• Leverage our extensive strategic partner relationships 
• Continue to grow Rathbones Asset Management 

*A reconciliation between the underlying measure and its closest IFRS equivalent is provided in the financial performance section.

 OUTLOOK AND GUIDANCE 

We are making good progress towards delivering an underlying operating margin of 30% from September 2026, notwithstanding the additional headwinds that have arisen since we set out this target, which include ongoing inflationary pressures and the estimated impact of NlCs from April 2025. Delivery of this will be on a run-rate basis from three years following completion of the IW&I transaction, i.e. September 2026. 

This margin growth will be underpinned by a combination of: 

• Modest market growth in line with inflation 
• A return to organic net inflows, supported by growth in advice, refreshed marketing and distribution capabilities and growth in our Asset Management business 
• Ongoing cost discipline, in what we expect to be a more normalised inflationary environment 
• Synergy delivery in line with guidance. 

We expect the improvement in the underlying operating margin to arise mostly during 2026, with a more modest improvement in 2025. This principally reflects the timing of further synergy benefits, which will be weighted towards the second half of the 2025 financial year, when the cost savings which are linked to the migration to a single operating platform will materialise and we work towards IW&I ceasing to run as a separate, regulated entity. Performance in 2025 will also reflect the increase in NIC costs and a full year of the 2024 salary reviews, which were undertaken in the higher inflationary environment. We also expect to see a flatter seasonal spike in transaction-based commission income in March 2025 as a result of the additional activity that arose on client portfolios ahead of the 2024 Autumn Budget. 

We expect to see growth in advice revenues in 2025 as a result of increased advisor capacity following completion of the Saunderson House migration and our continuing focus on advice, along with increased demand following the taxation changes announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget. Net interest income will benefit from the delivery of revenue synergies in the second half of 2025 following the IW&I client migration, with net interest margins expected to see only a modest impact from the reductions in central bank rates that are anticipated. We will be focused on our growth agenda in 2025 to drive improved net flows. 

Delivering sustainable value to our shareholders and maintaining a disciplined and efficient approach to managing shareholder capital is of the highest importance to the Board. The Group continues to maintain a robust capital base, with a surplus of capital above the regulatory minimum of £207.2 million at 31 December 2024 (prior to taking into account the proposed final dividend for the year) which supports strategic investment, the ongoing integration of the IW&I business and our progressive dividend policy. 

The business remains highly cash generative and we expect to see a further increase in cash generation once the integration of IW&I is complete and we see the full benefits of the combination synergies. As such, we will review our capital allocation policy, including an evaluation of our capacity for surplus returns, following the migration of IW&I onto a single operating platform later this year. 

DECLARATION OF FINAL DIVIDEND 

In July, we announced an interim dividend of 30p. Given the strength of our balance sheet and our confidence in the long-term future of the business, the Board has recommended a final dividend of 63.0p per share for 2024 (2023: 24.0p). This brings the total dividend for the year to 93.0p (2023: 87.0p), representing a 6.9% increase compared to 2023. The dividend will be paid on 13 May 2025, subject to shareholder approval at our 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 8 May 2025. 

2024 RESULTS PRESENTATION 

A presentation to analysts and investors will take place this morning at 10:00am at our offices at 30 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7QN. Participants who wish to join the presentation virtually can do so by either joining the video webcast or by dialling in using the conference call details below: 

United Kingdom (Local): +44 20 3936 2999 
United Kingdom (Toll-Free): +44 800 358 1035 

Participant access code: 129625 

A Q&A session will follow the presentation. Participants will be able to ask their questions either via the webcast by typing them in or via the conference call line. 

A recording of the presentation will be available here later today on our website. 

Issued on 26 February 2025 

For further information contact: 
Rathbones Group Plc 
Investors 

Paul Stockton, Group Chief Executive Officer 
Iain Hooley, Group Chief Financial Officer 
Shelly Patel, Head of Investor Relations 

Tel: 020 7399 0071 
Email: shelly.patel@rathbones.com 

Press

Tessa Curtis, Director of Corporate Communications & Affairs 
Tel: 07833 346238 
Email: tessa.curtis@rathbones.com 

Camarco 

Ed Gascoigne-Pees 
Tel: 020 3757 4984 
Email: ed.gascoigne-pees@camarco.co.uk 

FULL STATEMENT