M&G led the way with gross sales of £2.25bn (£1.06bn on a net basis). Lipper’s UK Fund Flash report suggests the group is “fortunate” to still be retaining enough business to keep it at the top of the pile, with sales of Tom Dobell’s Recovery fund and other equity vehicles compensating for profit-taking from its Corporate Bond fund.
As reported yesterday, M&G saw a 20% rise in assets under management in the first half of the year, though net investment inflows were down by nearly half compared to the first half of 2009.
Invesco Perpetual took second place with gross sales of £1.95bn, attracting backing for its Japan, Latin America and emerging markets funds, though it failed to make the top 10 in terms of net inflows.
BlackRock achieved record gross sales of £1.78bn, a healthy £847m on a net basis, banking on the continued success of Mark Lyttleton’s UK Absolute Alpha fund. Other funds attracting attention are its European Dynamic and UK Income products as a result of their improving performance under relatively new investment managers, Alister Hibbert and Nick McLeod-Clarke respectively.
