Demand has buoyed Premier Miton’s assets under management upwards by £600m, as investors returned to UK equity-focused strategies.
In its quarterly update this morning (April 8) the Surrey based company said assets had risen by £600m in the period, totalling £12.6bn at the end of March. Net inflows for the three-month period totalled £193m.
This was the second consecutive quarter of positive net inflows for the firm and was due to increased demand for its UK equity strategies.
In the six months to the end of March, the company’s assets grew 19 per cent, from £10.6bn in September 2020. Financial year to date inflows totalled £359m.
Mike Shea, CEO, said: “For the first time in many months, and as we had expected at the time of our last update to shareholders, we saw increasing demand for our UK equity-focused strategies.
“This sector has been out of favour with investors for some time and it is one where we have a broad and strongly performing range of funds.
“Should this recent improvement in investor sentiment be maintained, we believe that the group is well placed to benefit from increasing fund flows given our excellent track record in the area.”
Fixed income funds too saw positive signs in the quarter, with inflows of £31m.
Despite the success of the firm’s equity funds, its multi-asset funds, amid a series of changes, suffered outflows of £384m.
The shake-up, announced in January, saw fees slashed and David Jane and Anthony Rayner given control of the Multi Asset Growth & Income and the Multi Asset Conservative Growth funds.
Shea said: “During the quarter, we completed a number of changes to our multi-asset funds with the objective of reducing overall costs for investors.
Of the £3.9bn the Guildford firm manages in multi-asset funds, some £2.2bn is now managed on a multi-manager basis, with the remaining £1.7bn managed through direct investment in underlying securities.
Shea added: “We continue to believe that both strategies have a role to play in client portfolios and we are proud of our long-term investment records in both areas.
“For those multi-asset funds where an industry sector is an appropriate comparator, we have 97 per cent of our assets under management performing ahead of median and 94 per cent in the first quartile over the last year.”
Also confirmed today was the launch date of Premier Miton’s European Sustainable Leaders Fund, which will be available from 10 May.
The fund will focus on companies with strong ESG profiles. and will be managed by Carlos Moreno and Thomas Brown, who have managed the Premier Miton’s £2.4bn European Opportunities Fund since launch in December 2015.
The firm currently manages four funds with specific sustainable, ESG or ethical objectives.
Tom Higgins is a freelance reporter at FTAdviser
