Rathbone Brothers, the UK fund manager, posted a 28% jump in pre-tax profits from £7.3m (€10.7m) to £10.2m in the six months to June and said that it now wants to make acquisitions.

Mark Powell, chairman of Rathbone Brothers, said: "These significantly improved results reflect the growth in funds under management that has been achieved in recent years in all parts of our business, and our ability to provide settlement and systems support cost effectively."