Goodbody Stockbrokers returned to the black last year with a pretax profit of €7.7 million last year, marking its first positive result in three years, as fee and commission income jumped.
The firm had recorded a €7 million loss in 2023.
The AIB subsidiary’s fee income from providing management and advisory services to wealth and asset management clients as well as investment banking customers jumped 63 per cent to €57.6 million, according to its latest set of accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
Commission income on transactions such as stock and bond trading edged up only 1.2 per cent to €14.9 million, while other income – including interest margin on clients’ cash placed on deposit and various structured product transactions – rose almost 10 per cent to just under €20 million.
RM Block
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While in previous years Goodbody often relied on volatile trading income on stocks and bonds held on its own books to boost earnings, trading income actually slid to €209,000 last year from €2.83 million in 2023.
Administrative expenses rose 3.7 per cent to €86.2 million, driven by wage costs as average staff numbers increased to 399 from 375 for the previous year.
Goodbody paid a fine of €1.23 million to the Central Bank of Ireland in March 2024 for failing to put in place an effective system to monitor for suspicious trading activity. It used up a provision previously set aside for the matter to meet the charge.
Goodbody, which dates back to 1874 and was bought by AIB in September 2021 for €138 million, is led by chief executive Martin Tormey. It cut jobs in its investment banking unit two years ago amid a global slowdown in deal-making and fundraising, and an expected acceleration of large companies leaving the Irish stock market.
However, it has been building up its asset and wealth management business in recent years as it plays belated catch-up to its larger rival Davy, which stole a march against its main competitor in the past dozen years snapping up assets amid consolidation in this space.
The Irish Times reported earlier this year that Goodbody was circling BCP Asset Management, a Dublin-based firm that was put on the market in late 2024 and is said to be worth between €12 million and €14 million. Talks are said to be ongoing.
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BCP, which was set up in 1968, appointed KPMG late last year to advise on strategic options, after it had received a number of unsolicited approaches from wealth managers.
AIB injected €50 million of fresh capital into Goodbody at the end of last year “to support future growth opportunities”, the firm’s latest annual financial statement said. Its total equity reserves, including retained earnings, stood at €118.1 million at the end of 2024, up from €61 million a year earlier.
