The Liontrust Economic Advantage team, headed up by Anthony Cross (pictured), has doubled its stake in Nucleus from 5.47% to 11.02%.
Cross’s team has held a position in Nucleus since its July 2018 IPO via the £74.8m UK Micro Cap fund.
The team’s largest Liontrust UK Smaller Companies fund, which manages £1.2bn, initiated a position shortly after in November 2018. In a monthly fund review from the time, the team praised the company’s “high level of recurring fee income” and “strong distribution network” of over 800 adviser firms and used by over 2,000 advisers.
The latest trade in the Aim-listed stock took place on 27 January, according a regulatory filing published on Wednesday.
The adviser platform does not sit in the top-10 holdings of either fund, according to their latest factsheets. But Morningstar data shows the company represented 0.81% in the UK Smaller Companies fund in October 2019, while in December 2019, it represented 1.38% in the UK Micro Cap fund.
While the fund house now owns more than a tenth of firm, its stake pales in comparison to the 52.2% held by Sanlam UK. Other notable shareholders include chief executive David Ferguson, who owns 2.37% and Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management, which has a 2.25%, according to Morningstar data.
Nucleus was among a trio of platforms that IPO’d in 2018 alongside Transact-parent Integrafin and AJ Bell. The Liontrust UK Smaller Companies holds all three but Nucleus had represented the largest holding for the period ended 30 April 2019, according to its latest annual report.
The UK Micro Cap fund does not hold Integrafin or AJ Bell, which both have market capitalisations of £1.6bn.
