Brooks Macdonald reported a 3.5 per cent increase in total fund under management (FUM) in the three months to March 31, 2023.
In a trading update published today (April 13), the firm said it ended the period at £16.8bn, up from £16.2bn on December 31, 2022.
This was down to net flows which stood at £400mn for the quarter, which were driven by platform MPS and, within that, the group’s B2B offering BM Investment Solutions which broke £1bn FUM for the first time.
Andrew Shepherd, chief executive officer of Brooks Macdonald, said: “I am delighted to report another strong quarter for Brooks Macdonald, despite market conditions, with net flows reaching a level last seen five years ago, demonstrating the ongoing success of our strategy in action.
“I am grateful to our clients, our network of intermediaries, and in particular our people, whose commitment and focus on our clients make these results possible.”
The results also revealed that total net inflows in the quarter amounted to £373mn, equivalent to an annualised growth rate of 9 per cent, according to a note by Peel Hunt.
It said this was a significant improvement and is consistent with expectation that growth for the full year will be 5 to 6 per cent, although it said it would be more likely at the top end of that range.
“A significant part of the growth was from BMIS, the outsourced investment service for advisers, which benefited from several large wins and helped MPS platform flows increase to £505mm,” Peel Hunt said.
The core UKIM business overall reported £455mn of net inflows, while outflows from the funds business stood at £34mn.
International business also saw modest net outflows of just £48mn.
Positive markets and investment performance equated to £0.2bn, or 1.2 per cent of opening AUM, which was slightly behind the growth in the private client index (2.4 per cent).
The analysts said: “We recently upgraded our full year expectations given the strength of the performance in the first half and the benefit from recently completed acquisitions.
“Today’s AUM figure is supportive of our existing forecasts and we therefore make no changes today.”
In February, the firm announced that its chair Alan Carruthers had resigned after almost four years in the role.
In a statement to the stock exchange, it said following a series of health issues over the past 12 months, Carruthers informed the firm of his decision to resign from the board with immediate effect to give him time to recuperate fully.
Senior independent director Richard Price assumed the role of acting chair.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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