Short Takes: TD Waterhouse Doubled Profits in Year

TD Waterhouse Group, the New York-based discount brokerage arm of Toronto-Dominion Bank Financial Group, reported strong yearend results Thursday.

Net income for the year that ended Oct. 31 was up 100% from fiscal year 1998, to $97 million, or 28 cents a share. Revenues for the year jumped 56%, to $960 million.

Net income for the fourth quarter was up 45%, or 6 cents a share, to $21 million, over the year-earlier period. But net income fell 21% from the previous quarter because of a $9.5 million increase in advertising spending, the company said.

The company attributed the spike in yearend earnings partly to an increase in active accounts worldwide and the resulting increase in customer assets. TD Waterhouse has some 2.1 million accounts around the world, representing assets of $122 billion.

Michael A. Flanagan, an equity analyst with Financial Service Analytics of Philadelphia, attributed TD Waterhouse's strong growth to the company's steady strategic approach to the discount brokerage business in recent years. That approach included an initial public offering in June that raised $1 billion and a string of small but strategic brokerage acquisitions over the last several years. The company recently purchased YorkShare, a British brokerage operation, and is pursuing a joint venture in India with Tata Financial Securities Ltd.

"It's all beginning to pay off and they're beginning to expand globally," Mr. Flanagan said.

-- Niamh Ring

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