Investors Capital Holdings Posts Net Profit For FY 2010

Investors Capital Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE Amex: ICH), a financial services holding company, posted annual net income of $0.32 million for the fiscal year (FY) ended March 31, 2010 compared to a net loss of $1.83 million for the prior period (FY 2009).

Adjusted EBITDA was $1.48 million for FY 2010 compared to a negative $0.26 million in FY 2009. Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), described below, is a key metric utilized by the firm in evaluating its financial performance.

The turnaround, achieved despite a market-driven 3.0% decline in overall revenue, was aided by a 6.4% increase in advisory revenue and a 21.4% decrease in operating expenses from the implementation of cost cutting initiatives.

The rise in the Company’s advisory revenues reflects an increase in assets under management, surpassing the $1 billion level in FY 2010 due to rising markets, improved managed portfolio performance, and additional investor contributions. Advisory services are delivered through Investors Capital Advisory Services (ICAS), the investment advisory division of Investors Capital Corporation (ICC), ICH’s wholly-owned broker-dealer and registered investment advisor subsidiary.

The Company reduced its operating expenses by 21.4% for FY 2010, including a 40.3% decline in advertising and communications expense, a 39.2% decrease in regulatory, legal and professional expenses, and a 12.3% drop in compensation and benefits. These reductions enabled the Company to post operating income of $0.86 million in FY 2010 compared to an operating loss of $2.17 million in FY 2009.

Investors Capital continues to benefit from improving overall quality of its registered representatives, a key component of its strategy for achieving growth in revenues and net income. The firm strives continually to improve the quality of its representatives by helping them grow their practices, terminating representatives with low-production or quality of services, and recruiting more established, higher-quality representatives. Assisted by these efforts, the firm’s average revenue per representative rose to $137,961 for FY 2010, an increase of 12.1% compared to FY 2009.