At the end of 2001 the group's capital was $22m of which 41% is in cash and 49% in ownership of the LOM Building in Hamilton, Bermuda. The company's book value per share was $3.50 at year end. The Company has no debt other than day to day payables incurred in the ordinary course of business. The group is in a strong position to weather the current downturn in business and continue to expand business operations.
Our main revenue streams, the transaction fees earned by our broking divisions in Bermuda, Grand Cayman and the Bahamas were 60% lower in 2001 than in 2000. Net interest revenues also declined 47% as interest rates and customer demand for margin funds declined sharply in the year. Lower overall business activity also resulted in our corporate finance subsidiary reporting 58% lower revenues as the number of corporate deals declined. Furthermore our revenues from foreign exchange spreads fell 28% due to lower customer activity and our security inventory account declined 19%. Other revenues of the group including bank and administration fees collected by our clearing subsidiary grew marginally, up 6%. One bright area was the performance of our asset management subsidiary where revenues rose 15% mainly due to rising funds under management.
The management of the group continues to operate the company as efficiently as possible and wherever feasible reduce our cost base. However the bulk of our staff operate in a jurisdiction where salaries and employments costs are very high and continue to rise as new exempt companies come to Bermuda. This has raised the premium on automating our processes and procedures as much as possible and has meant that we have had to continue to spend funds on system enhancements during this downturn. Additionally the group has continued and will continue to invest in our long term strategic goals.
Overall we expect that the balance of 2002 will prove a more rewarding year in the markets than has the past year. US equity markets peaked in the first quarter of 2000, and global equities have since suffered bear markets for almost two years. That peak in March of 2000 predicted the
slowdown we witnessed in US economic growth starting in June of 2000. We believe that the US equity markets bottomed in September of 2001 and the general recovery in equity markets we have seen since that time are forecasting a pickup in economic activity this year. Most of the excess inventories and imbalances restraining growth have now worked themselves out of the US economy. We should begin to see a recovery in corporate profits as very accommodative monetary and fiscal policy work to stimulate economic growth in all the major economies. With this economic recovery, we expect 2002 to see a gradual recovery in equity market prices.
We remain optimistic that LOM's profits will recover this year as the group's broking and corporate finance divisions see transactions rise and consequent revenue gains. We expect that our asset management revenues will continue to grow as our assets under discretionary management increase. And finally the marginal costs of servicing these increased revenues should decline as we reap benefits from our investments in technology.
We are pleased that LOM has significant capital to support its operations and maintain its strategic initiatives in this difficult market environment. We intend to continue to develop our staff and client base in our principal jurisdictions.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers, employees, directors and shareholders for the support and efforts made through the challenges of the last year and we look forward to the opportunities that 2002 will bring."