The Artemis fund group, where the directors are still in control after sharing a £317m pay-out from ailing Belgian bank Fortis last month, made pre-tax profits of £63.5m last year.

The Artemis fund group, where the directors are still in control after sharing a £317m pay-out from ailing Belgian bank Fortis last month, made pre-tax profits of £63.5m last year.

That was a 74% rise on 2006, while operating profits jumped 71% to £55.9m, according to the annual accounts just published which call the year "encouraging".

Turnover climbed from £44m to £61m, and dividends rose from £22.9m to £40m, suggesting that employee shareholders received £13.2m in dividends, with around £8m shared among the six senior directors.

Funds under management rose from £5.1bn to £6.3bn during the year, and the profit before tax margin widened from 82% to 104%.

Artemis deepened its value by more than doubling its institutional business from £16.6m to £34.1m or more than half of turnover, while pooled fund revenues dropped from £11.6m to £10.8m. Staff rose from 87 to 95, and the highest paid director drew £925,000, against only £278,000 the previous year.

Six directors led by senior founders Mark Tyndall and John Dodds shared some £145m when management invoked a sell-on clause to trigger the pay-out from Fortis, which had to be activated within 12 months of the change of ownership. Fortis, now being propped up by its government, acquired the stake as part of the Royal Bank of Scotland consortium which took out Artemis's previous majority shareholder ABN Amro.

Management however has said the sale was "not the preferred option", and that it hopes to regain a minority equity stake with a new partner, while Fortis has promised that directors will be "fully involved" in discussions on the future of the company.

Several US fund managers have been linked with possible interest in Artemis including Federated Investors, Franklin Templeton and Putnam.