Walker Crips shares dive on profits warning

The Walker Crips Group has seen its shares fall almost 15% after it issued a profits warning following a drop in AUM.

Assets in Walker Crips Asset Management (WCAM) were up 8.1% in the core unit trusts, run by Stephen Bailey and Jan Luthman, in Q4 of last year.

However, some non-core offshore mandates saw funds under management fall as their administration was moved in-house.

Overall AUM decreased to £612m on 31 December, down from £698m in September and £753m the previous year.

The group's shares fell 14.77% to 38.5p in morning trading following the announcement.

An interim management statement said: "Despite the increase in core FUM and related fee income, the reduction in overall FUM and the continuing difficult trading conditions being experienced generally in the financial sector are likely to result in group profitability for the year to 31 March 2012 being lower than expectations.

"However, the WCG Board believes the group's diverse product range continues to underpin its profitable resilience to the current challenging environment."

The group also reported a 9.8% fall in revenue to £3.39m, and a 28.7% fall in commission revenues to £1.74m "due to more subdued equity markets".