WHK Group $5.2m Profit Down 22% 1H2013

Financial advisory WHK Group (WHG) have announced its first half financial results for 2013 to its shareholders and investors on the Australian stock market.

• WHK Group posted Net profit of $5.2 million, down 22 percent from $6.7 million on the previous corresponding period.
• WHK revenue fell 2 percent to $210.9 million.
• WHK Group also made 123 positions redundant at the cost of $3.2 million.
• The company also spent $600,000 in assessing its merger with SFG.
• WHK Group is considering a merger with SFG Australia, values WHK Group at $320 million. SFG Australia is a wealth management and wealth advisory company. SFG's proposed offer is to have WHK shareholders take 42 percent interest in a new merged business which implies a value of $1.21 for each WHG share. The scrip deal has one SFG share to 0.503 of a WHK share.
• SFG has $11.3 billion in managed funds at September 30, 2012.
• WHK Group has more than 200,000 clients across Australia and New Zealand and is Australia's fifth-largest accounting firm after Ernst & Young, PwC, Deloitte and KPMG.
• There is no guarantee the transaction will go ahead, with the companies doing due diligence.
• WHK declared an interim dividend of 3 cents per share. The company also reinstated its dividend reinvestment plan with a 2.5 percent discount to market price.