Portfolio Adviser • Portfolio Adviser Magazine November 2022 • News

Third-quarter assets under management (AUM) at Gam fell 10.3% to ¤¥¦ 74.6bn (£66.3bn) from ¤¥¦ 83.2bn in Q2, but it is on course to trim at least ¤¥¦ 20m in total expenses for the full year 2022. Since the start of the year, the Swiss-headquartered firm’s total AUM has plummeted 25%.

Total AUM at AJ Bell’s investment arm rose to £2.8bn in its 2022 financial year, up from £2.2bn the previous year. Meanwhile, its platform net inflows plunged 17% to £5.8bn from £7bn in 2021. Customer numbers were up across the year, with 15% more advised and 16% more D2C clients joining its platform. However, adverse market movements shaved 11% o. the platform business’ assets under advice (AUA). As a result, it ended the year with AUA of £64.1bn, down from £65.3bn in September 2021.

St James’s Place clawed back some of its lost funds under management (FUM) in Q3 2022, though FUM remains £5bn below the £148bn reported in Q3 2021. Third-quarter gross inflows of £4.1bn were o.set by £1.3bn in negative market movements, £500m in regular income withdrawals and maturities, and £1.4bn in surrenders/part-surrenders.

The third quarter of 2022 could signal a turning point for wealth manager Rathbones, which reported a significant slowdown in outflows compared with the first half of the year. The firm started 2022 with funds under management and administration of £68.2bn, which had dropped substantially to £57.9bn by the end of September. However, the lion’s share of the decline – £9.7bn – was recorded in the six months to the end of June.

Quilter’s AUMA at 30 September weighed in at £96.9bn, having declined 2% in the three months to that date. Increasing market volatility and cost-of-living pressures have made life di.cult for companies this year, though Quilter still managed to secure net inflows into its a«uent and high net-worth business divisions during Q3. Having said this, net inflows did fall between Q2 and Q3, from £0.3bn to £0.2bn. This compares with £1bn of net inflows during the same three-month period in 2021.

AUMA at Liontrust Asset Management fell to £31.7bn as of the end of September 2022, down around 7.5% from £34.3bn at the beginning of July. Hopes for a fourth quarter recovery got o. to a shaky start with AUMA dropping further by mid-October to £31.2bn.

Tatton Asset Management’s AUM grew by a fraction over £1bn in the six months to 30 September 2022, rising to £12.3bn up from £11.3bn in March. Net inflows totalled £907m, an increase of nearly 40% on the same period last year, yet this figure only marginally exceeded the losses sustained as a result of market performance, which eroded £905m. The majority of Tatton’s AUM growth can be attributed to its acquisition of 8AM Global, in which it bought 50% of firm’s share capital.

Premier Miton experienced net outflows in every quarter of its recent financial year, which ended on 30 September 2022, with AUM falling to £10.6bn from £13.9bn a year ago. In total, clients withdrew £1.1bn during the year, £300m in Q4. The remainder of the AUM erosion, nearly £2.3bn, was the result of negative market movements.

The Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (FGT) reported improved performance in September. The £1.8bn trust’s net asset value (NAV) fell 2.7%, while its share price declined 3% against the FTSE’s -5.9%. This is a better relative performance for the portfolio, as it had trailed the FTSE All-Share in August. There is still ground to make up, however, after a sharp rotation away from growth at the start of the year. In the nine months to the end of September, FGT’s share price returned -10.8% versus its benchmark’s -7.9%. NAV is down 11% over that period. Fund manager Nick Train (pictured below) attributed better performance to “a shift in investor preference” towards companies less likely to be adversely impacted by current market conditions.