Axa Wealth International, which earlier this week announced the launch of a new “dedicated offshore sales and distribution division”, said sales were down by 37% during the six month period, but that assets under management increased to £8bn.
Meanwhile, platform sales have dominated Axa Wealth’s half year results, now representing more than half of its total individual sales during the period.
Axa said its overall sales for the six month period totalled £1.6bn, which included an 11% increase for its Elevate platform to £855m. The company added that platform assets now represent about a quarter of its total AUM, having increased over the six month period from £2.9bn to £4.3bn.
The total AUM of Axa Wealth increased from £18.9bn to £20.1bn, helped by a 26% rise in assets held under its multi-manager proposition Architas, which had assets at the end of June of £10.8bn.
The company has also announced that Andrew Smith, a former senior manager at platform rival Nucleus, is to head up Elevate as chief operating officer. Smith, who is due to join on 3 September, has been with Nucleus since he was drafted in in 2008 to lead help with the design and build of the Nucleus platform.
AXA Wealth chief executive Mike Kellard said: “These are very pleasing results for AXA Wealth, whilst the industry has been distracted with issues such as needing to prepare for the RDR, highly volatile markets and a double-dip recession.
“Hopefully no-one should doubt our commitment to our market and the financial resources available to AXA Wealth to ensure the Elevate platform succeeds, nor the support we will continue to provide to advisers.”
