Hargreaves Lansdown plunge marks end of pandemic business boom Business

Like other investment platforms, Hargreaves has been boosted by bored Britons trading volatile stocks during lockdown.

Wild market swings during the crisis have prompted an army of retail investors to rally on social media platform Reddit and pile into so-called “meme stocks” such as GameStop, the retailer American, and AMC, the owner of Odeon.

However, the business boom has receded since work-from-home dictates were lifted and workers returned to their desks.

The Bristol-based fund supermarket also announced plans to invest £175m in the company’s technology capabilities over the next five years and launched a financial advisory service to leverage a ‘point inflection point” in the UK wealth management market.

He said: “Now is the time to target the broader wealth management market and set a new standard for how the UK saves and invests.”

Julian Roberts, an analyst at Jefferies, said: “We had believed for some time that Hargreaves Lansdown would have to sacrifice some of its profitability for growth as structural headwinds mounted.”

Hargreaves’ total assets under administration rose 17% in the period to £141.2bn, while total revenue fell 3% to £291m.

Peel Hunt analysts said the hit to profitability “reflects revenue headwinds from both trading activity and prevailing interest rates.”

Hargreaves, which has a 43% market share in Britain’s consumer investment sector, is coming under increasing pressure from rivals such as AJ Bell and Freetrade.

In November, AJ Bell launched a commission-free service similar to Robinhood, the US smartphone app that played a major role in the “meme stock” frenzy, in a bid to attract a new generation of traders to the market. scholarship.