Investec UK profits down on investment banking slide

The global banking and asset management group attributes the fall to a 67% slide in its UK and EU Investment Banking division pre-tax profit, which plummeted from £23.3m to £7.6m. Investec says the UK operations were impacted by “weaker performance” from some investments held within the Private Equity and Direct Investments branch, as well as lower IPO activity. Assets under management for the entire group in sterling also decreased, down 3.8% to £28.8bn. With strong operations in South Africa and Australia, overall pre-tax profit for the group climbed 15.2% to £537.7m for the period....