Argo Investments reported a 13.2 per cent drop in annual profit as one of the country’s oldest listed investment companies underperformed the sharemarket in the 2023 financial year.

The ASX-listed investor posted a profit of $271.1 million for the 12 months through June. The year-earlier figure of $319.2 million was bolstered by one-off income of $61.7 million due to the merger of BHP’s oil and gas assets with Woodside Energy and Tabcorp’s demerger of The Lottery Corporation.