The Luxembourg-domiciled range attracted £1.6bn of the firm’s £2.9bn total net inflows, with UK OEICs and US mutual funds accounting for just £0.6bn each.
The group said the quarter saw significant flows from Latin America despite SICAV distribution being predominantly European.
The SICAVs with the highest net inflows were pan European long only and absolute return offerings such as the Henderson Horizon Pan Euro Alpha Fund, which has and the Henderson Horizon Pan European Equity Fund, which currently hold assets under management of €816m and €3.5bn respectively.
The UK- headquartered asset manager said the fund choices reflected continued demand for European equities, as well as an increased focus on the benefits of absolute return and multi-asset offerings for clients.
“Absolute return flows continued to demonstrate a shift in client demand from offshore vehicles to UCITS products,” it added.
The group also said funds such as the Henderson Gartmore UK Absolute Return Fund and the Henderson Horizon European Corporate Bond Fund attracted significant flows.
As a result of the net inflows, Henderson’s total assets under management (AUM) reached £79.2bn as of the 31 March, increasing from £75.2bn in January.
Henderson chief executive Andrew Formica said: "Henderson has made a good start to 2014. The strong support we saw from clients at the end of 2013 in our Retail business continued through the first quarter and in our Institutional business, flows were stable.
“Client demand for European equities was the most significant driver, but solid investment performance and active client engagement worldwide continued to generate interest in all of our core capabilities – European equities, global equities, global fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives.”
Earlier this week, Henderson announced it was preparing to launch products catering to the emerging market investment asset class.
It named Steve Drew as the head of emerging market credit and also announced plans to hire an investment team to support him.
Stephen Thariyan, global head of credit, said he hoped the appointment would help the firm to expand the global scale of its fixed income franchise.
