Brooks Macdonald Group’s Discretionary Funds under Management (FUM) for the third quarter ended 31 March 2019 totalled GBP12.8 billion, an increase of 7.9 per cent over the quarter (31 December 2018: GBP11.9 billion).
By comparison, the MSCI WMA Balanced Index increased by 6.9 per cent over the period.
The increase was driven by net new business of GBP166 million (+1.4 per cent) and investment performance of GBP773 million (+6.5 per cent).
UK Investment Management added net flows of GBP152 million (+1.5 per cent) and performance gains of GBP742 million (+7.2 per cent), while international had positive net new business of GBP14 million (+0.9 per cent) as the impact of the previously disclosed loss of a client-facing team fell away
Year-on-year, total FUM increased by 9.8 per cent (31 March 2018: GBP11.7 billion).
In line with the Group’s stated strategy to focus on its core offerings, on 10 April the Ground Rents Income Fund (GRIF), a specialised property fund, announced that the Group was exiting from its investment management agreement with the fund. This is subject to the necessary FCA notification, which is expected to take one month. GRIF represented GBP93 million of non-core funds at 31 March 2019.
Caroline Connellan (pictured), Chief Executive of Brooks Macdonald, says: “I am pleased to report we have continued to perform well overall with positive net new business and strong investment performance. Although client sentiment remained subdued in the UK against the backdrop of macro-economic and political uncertainty, in that context we maintained decent organic growth, reflecting the strength of our client and adviser relationships. The return to positive net flows in International is encouraging, with the changes we announced in March designed to support the future growth of this business.
“The ongoing strength of our investment performance gave us good total FUM growth, driven by our Centralised Investment Process and the depth of expertise within our teams.
“The fundamental opportunity for our business remains strong and the actions we have taken towards delivering sustainable and value-enhancing growth position us well for the future.”
