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Arbuthnot Banking's retail unit drives first-half profit

(Reuters) - Britain's Arbuthnot Banking Group reported a nearly five-fold rise in first-half pretax profit, boosted by strong loan growth in its Secure Trust Bank retail unit. Arbuthnot, which has its roots in 181-year-old private bank and wealth manager Arbuthnot Latham, said net interest income rose to 41.1 million pounds in the six months ended June 30, from 30.1 million pounds a year earlier. Pretax profit rose to 9.5 million pounds from 2 million. The company's underlying profit rose 83 percent to 13.2 million pounds, after adjusting for costs, as lending by Secure Trust Bank jumped 22 percent to 447.8 million pounds. Arbuthnot said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell some intellectual assets of its structured products business Gilliat Financial Solutions to Mariana Capital Markets for an undisclosed amount. Structured products are financial instruments that typically use derivatives to allow clients to bet on market movements or reduce risk. Gilliat is part of the company's private banking and wealth management arm, Arbuthnot Latham. The sale is not expected to have a material impact on full-year results, Arbuthnot said. Arbuthnot's shares were untraded at 0938 BST on the London Stock Exchange after closing at 1180 pence on Monday. AIM-listed Secure Trust Bank's shares were up about 0.6 percent at 2300 pence. (Reporting by Richa Naidu and Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Ted Kerr)