Hargreaves Lansdown sees business soar during coronavirus crisis

Hargreaves Lansdown is having a good crisis - and no one is enjoying the fruits more than the founders.

The asset manager saw profit for the year leap 24% to £378 million. New business was up 5% to £7.7 billion as punters across Britain took a proactive approach to managing their savings amidst turbulent markets.

The FTSE 100 firm took on 188,000 new clients taking the total to 1.4 million.

That success allows it to pay out a total dividend of 54.9p.

Peter Hargreaves, the Brexiteer, gets nearly £19 million. Co-founder and Bristol City owner Stephen Lansdown adds another £4 million to his fortune.

Lindsell Train, the biggest institutional investor, also gets £5 million.

Going forward, Hargreaves Lansdown said it will target younger savers and investors to maintain its momentum.

“We are already seeing an evolution of our service supporting clients from younger ages and across broader investment and savings options,” the company said.

Chief executive Chris Hill said: “The acute challenges of this year have reinforced the importance of resilience for us all and we will continue to have a key role in helping our clients build resilience into their savings and investments to enable themselves to be confident to manage through difficult periods and events.”

HL shares rose 85p, 5%, to 1910p. At that price the business started in the spare bedroom of a Bristol flat is valued at more than £9 billion.