By Ian McConnell
SIR Angus Grossart has declared his Edinburgh-based merchant bank looks forward with “confidence and resilience” to another year of “sound progress”, reiterating the importance in uncertain times of “human judgemental qualities and values”, a long-term approach and prudence.
He has offered his view of the current situation in the latest accounts of Noble Grossart Holdings, which have just become available from Companies House.
These show Noble Grossart Holdings achieved a pre-tax profit of £2.738 million in the year to January 31, amid the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis.
Sir Angus declared the merchant bank had experienced a “satisfactory trading year”, during an “unprecedented and unpredictable” period.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: We need to talk about Brexit, Douglas Ross
Noble Grossart Holdings had recorded a pre-tax profit of £66.9m for the year to January 31, 2020. However, Sir Angus had noted in his comments on these previous accounts that this profit reflected “the efforts and knowledge of a lifetime, rather than just the work, or the events, of a single year”.
The merchant bank posted a pre-tax profit of £1.397m for the year to January 2019.
The latest accounts show Noble Grossart Holdings recorded gains on investments of £1.07m for the year to January 2021, compared with £60.184m in the prior 12 months. Investment income was £3.924m in the latest full financial year, compared with £8.336m in the year to January 2020. Fees and commissions receivable rose to £464,000 in the year to January 2021, from £383,000 in the prior 12 months.
The gains on investment figure for the year to January 2021 comprised a £17.878m profit on the sale of investments, a £10.3m decrease in the market value of listed investments, and a £6.51m fall in the fair value of unlisted investments.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell:Brexit could have taken many forms. Cheshire Cat Boris Johnson chose this one
Sir Angus said: “We have had a satisfactory trading year which we finished in a strong and liquid condition. Chairmen’s statements invariably seek, with hindsight, to rationalise the events of the past year, as if they had been expected, and been addressed with prescient intended plans. No one would wisely attempt to make such claims for last year, which was unprecedented and unpredictable in so many ways, and affected all business conditions and decisions.”
He added: “I believe that our strong condition and good prospects do not derive from one year or the annual fluctuations of markets. It reflects our consistent long-term strategy, anchored in prudence, but with a self-challenging and decision focussed approach.
“I underlined last year the particular importance, in uncertain times, of human judgemental qualities and values and the ability to translate complex analysis into decisions and to then instruct action. It is the antithesis of bureaucracy, to which, I hope, we are anthropologically immune.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here