JARDINE Fleming Holdings has reported after-tax profits for last year down 10 per cent at US$76 million.
The decline was the first at the company, in which Jardine Matheson Holdings and Robert Fleming of London have equal shares, since the global stock markets crash of 1987.
In 1991 the group reported a record profit of US$84 million. However, that was boosted by the HK$80 million sale of the merchant bank's share in a partnership in Taiwan.
After stripping out the exceptional gain of 1991, profit after tax rose 2.7 per cent last year.
Return on shareholders' funds was 40 per cent, against 53 per cent the previous year.
Group managing director Alan Smith said: ''Jardine Fleming produced good results in 1992 despite varying financial markets in the Asia-Pacific region.'' The group is the largest locally based fund manager and broking house in Hongkong. It has US$10 billion under management, the same as in 1991, and between two per cent and four per cent of stock market trading turnover, according to listings for A category brokers at the Hongkong Stock Exchange.
