Fiscal 2011 was a pivotal year for Canaccord Financial. We built a strong, accomplished M&A and advisory team, added to our sector and market cap coverage, and captured trading market share by acquiring and integrating a strategically important capital markets business in Canada. We successfully improved the margins of Canaccord Wealth Management by taking measures to increase the efficiency and productivity of our retail business, which ultimately achieved its first profitable year since the global financial crisis. And we gained further access to China's growing demand for cross-border investment and M&A opportunities by expanding our global platform into Asia through the acquisition of a leading boutique investment bank in China. Together, these initiatives helped Canaccord achieve record financial performance during fiscal 2011. Even more, they prove the success of our growth strategy and the power of our integrated, global platform.
All of Canaccord's businesses contributed to our record results for the fiscal year. Revenue of $804 million was an all time high, and something we are particularly proud of given these results were achieved during a year that was relatively quiet during the first six months. This 39% increase over last year is largely due to our expanded capital markets business; however, strong contributions were made from each of our subsidiaries and divisions – including our US operations, which achieved its best year ever.
Our exceptional top-line growth, combined with our continued commitment to increasing the efficiency of the Company, allowed us to grow net income by 155% compared to last year, to a record $98.2 million. Diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2011 were $1.20, 74% higher than the year earlier – impacted slightly by the 26.5 million shares that were issued to complete the acquisition of Genuity Capital Markets. On a normalized basis, excluding all acquisition-related expense items, net income was $113 million, 168% higher than fiscal 2010, and diluted EPS was $1.38.
During the year we also made meaningful progress in improving our return on equity. In fact, during the last half of fiscal 2011, annualized ROE was 23.7%(1) – an early indication of what we believe we can achieve for shareholders within healthy market conditions.
As market stability returned and our record results solidified the strength of our business, our Board of Directors approved another increase to our dividend for our fiscal fourth quarter – raising it to $0.10 per share, up from $0.05 a year ago. I'm pleased that our success has made it possible to responsibly distribute more of our earnings to shareholders.
We successfully completed the acquisition and integration of Genuity Capital Markets early in the fiscal year and rebranded our global capital markets team Canaccord Genuity on May 10, 2010. Since that time we have achieved exceptional results as a single team by leveraging our combined core strengths and client relationships. Canaccord Genuity is now delivering more expertise to more clients across a broader range of industry sectors than any time before.
Our investment banking team remains focused on cultivating long-term client relationships, catering to the changing needs of companies as they expand and mature. This is proving to be a highly competitive offering in the marketplace that just begins to demonstrate our ability to drive organic growth and earnings. More specifically, Canaccord Genuity is gaining significant momentum through our much-larger M&A and restructuring team. We advised on 39 transactions that closed during fiscal 2011, with an aggregate value of $5.7 billion. This includes our first major restructuring assignment and many transactions we would not have secured without the combined capabilities and expertise of our expanded capital markets team.
Canaccord Genuity's deep domain knowledge and full service offering have firmly established the Company as a leading global investment bank. This gives us an attractive opportunity to serve emerging geographies where the capital markets are still in the early stages of development. For several years, we have responded to client requests for cross-border transactions or advisory services with an Asia component. In January 2011, we formally launched Canaccord Genuity Asia to leverage the strength of the Company's sector expertise, particularly in the mining, energy, clean technology and life sciences sectors.
The exciting expansion of our global platform gives us significant new scope for growth by providing a wide range of capital markets services to regional and international clients. It also provides a strong base from which further growth initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region can draw on, providing Canaccord with even more opportunity to add strength to its operations in this important geography.
The focus of our wealth management team for the past two years has been on creating a sustainable business that delivers real value to both clients and shareholders. I'm pleased to say we are making great progress on both fronts. In fiscal 2011, Wealth Management delivered its first profitable year since the financial crisis. While stronger equity markets played a notable role in that result, our team's ongoing initiatives to contain costs, consolidate client assets in the hands of our most experienced Advisors, and grow our fee-based revenue contributed significantly. So did Complete Canaccord, our suite of tailored, easy-to-understand wealth management products designed specifically to meet the needs of Canada's emerging mass affluent market. Similarly, our transactional-oriented Advisors made tremendous gains in the last half of fiscal 2011, with many achieving best-ever years for annual production. During the year, assets under administration grew 31% to $17 billion, making Canaccord Wealth Management the largest non-bank pool of assets in Canada.
The initiatives we launched during fiscal 2011 have propelled Canaccord onto the global stage. We now rank in the top 20 investment banks worldwide based on equity underwriting fees.(2) And we're successfully competing against, and gaining market share from, competitors much larger than we are.
Canaccord's further evolution requires that we embrace geographies and business lines that will enable us to serve the broader needs of our growing client base around the world. Our strategy remains focused on driving organic growth and exploring strategic business development opportunities that build the strength and capabilities of our global platform. While we maneuver our businesses to be best situated for market opportunities, our commitment to generating long-term value for our shareholders remains paramount. All of our strategic decisions are, and always will be, anchored in delivering on this promise to you.
PAUL D. REYNOLDS
President & Chief Executive Officer
May 2011
(1) Normalized ROE. Excludes acquisition-related expense items.
(2) Bloomberg data and rankings.