A more than £90m loss in the private bank driven by impairments in Ireland held back group-wide profits at specialist bank and asset manager Investec, as five of the six divisions at the Anglo-African institution reported operating profits at least 35% higher than in the same period a year earlier.

Operating profits before goodwill, acquired intangibles, non-operating items and taxation increased just 0.5% to £434.4m for the year to March 31, despite healthy rises in operating profits across five of the six divisions.