Jelf paid £8.7m to broker bosses in 2010

Jelf boosted the wealth of a string of broker bosses last year after forking out around £8.7m in deferred payments, it has emerged.

The payouts helped Jelf trim its debts from £30.7m to £7.3m.

Jelf’s recently released annual report reveals the series of delayed payouts to broker bosses and shareholders, whose businesses were snapped up during the consolidator’s growth years.

• The biggest winner was Manchester-based broker Jon Manson and his partners who received £2.57m in Jelf shares and payments of £232,000. The payout made Jon Manson the largest individual shareholder in Jelf, with a 9.71% holding. Jelf bought Manson in January 2008.

• Jelf paid £2.57m to the owners of Jonh Lampier and Sons Limited, after buying the firm three years earlier.

• The Bristol-based business handed over £2.5m to Clarke Roxburgh shareholders, who only a year earlier received £1.8m.

• The consolidator paid £665,000 to Argyll Insurance and issued shares of £100,000.

Jelf made an after-tax profit of £883,00 for the year to 30 September 2010, a stark improvement from the £9.8m loss it made in the previous financial year. Administrative expenses were slashed 20%.

Jelf received a capital injection from private equity firm Cap Z and institutional investors last year in return for shares. Cap Z now has a 28.9% holding.