Perpetual mounts buy-back

Perpetual Limited has struggled amid volatile markets announcing a 31 per cent decline in net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June to $62.031 million.

Despite the decline, Perpetual rewarded shareholders with a dividend of 90 cents, fully franked.

Announcing the result to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today Perpetual also announced that intended to proceed with a $70 million off-market share buy-back.

Commenting on the result, Perpetual managing director and chief executive, Chris Ryan said investment sentiment had remained subdued through the financial year and had not been helped by the significant market volatility triggered by credit concerns around the world.

"Inevitably, this has put a damper on flows in the Australian funds and wealth management industry, as well as restricting activity in segments targeted by our corporate trust business," he said.

Drilling down on the company's operations, Ryan pointed to the Private Wealth business and said the diversification of revenue streams had continued with 32 per cent of revenues now not market-linked dut to higher activity levels in estate administration, tax and accounting.

He said Private Wealth's average funds under administration was $8.7 billion which was seven per cent higher than the previous year.

Ryan said that although outflows had increased, this was largely offset by an increase in inflows including a full-year contribution from Grosvenor and Fordham.