Jupiter, Miton, Polar Capital and Ashmore all released trading updates on Thursday, but where the first three reported strong inflows, or in the case of Polar, a return to net inflows, Ashmore continued to see redemptions.
Jupiter, reporting numbers for the three months to end December, said mutual fund inflows of £549m over the period helped boost group assets under management to £35.7bn by the end of 2015. This was, however, held back somewhat by the loss of a £57m segregated mandate, which came as the result of a client deciding to de-risk its portfolio.
According to Jupiter, the top selling funds during the quarter were its European Growth and Dynamic Bond strategies.
It added: “We believe our growth strategy and chosen markets have further room for expansion over time. We intend to access these opportunities in the same disciplined manner, choosing to grow organically in those areas where we have a high degree of confidence in our future success, while ensuring we always maintain the quality of our investment franchise.
Miton
Miton’s trading update for the same three month period ahead of full year results to be released on 21 March 2016, followed a similar narrative. The firm reported £463m of net inflows, a figure made up of £573m in equity fund inflows, £52m in investment trust inflows, offset by £162m in redemptions from its multi-asset funds.
The growth in inflows helped the firm grow AUM to £2.7bn at year end. This represents a 35.8% increase across the 12 month period.
At an individual fund level, Miton said, the CF Miton UK Value Opportunities Fund (including the FP Miton Undervalued Assets Fund which will be merged on 8 February 2016 subject to shareholder approval) attracted the greatest inflows with AUM rising over the year from £211m to £783m, while the the CF Miton UK Multi Cap Income Fund saw AUM grow from £378m to £586m.
Looking forward, Miton said: “Over the last four years we have set up a range of new funds with strategies that have both the potential to generate decent returns in unsettled markets, and also that are often lowly correlated with the mainstream indices.
“The distinctive nature of the Group’s product range has progressively become more relevant to our clients over the past year. In 2016 we may reach capacity in two of our strategies. Notwithstanding this the Group has a good range of funds with attractive performance so we expect to attract further inflows in the coming years,” it added.
