Brewin Dolphin rakes in £1bn inflows as RBC takeover looms

But total funds flat at £56.3bn thanks to volatility from Ukraine crisis and macroeconomic uncertainty

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Brewin Dolphin attracted £1bn of net inflows over the six months ended 31 March. Its interim results showed total net discretionary inflows grew 4% year-on-year ahead of its acquisition by the Jersey wealth arm of Royal Bank of Canada.

However, its total funds for the first half were broadly flat at £56.3bn, compared to £56.9bn at the end of FY 2021, thanks to volatility in markets stemming from the conflict in Ukraine and the macroeconomic environment.

Brewin’s total income increased by 4.8% year-on-year to £209.5m, while driven by higher fund levels, its financial planning arm grew 24.8% to £23.8m.

Despite the challenging backdrop, chief executive officer Robin Beer (pictured) said the group continued to see “strong inflows” across its direct and indirect discretionary funds and pointed to the wealth manager’s “record first quarter performance”.

“The resilience in our organic growth, demonstrates our strategy of being an advice-focused wealth manager, supported by our broad range of propositions and investment solutions, is the right one,” he added.

Addressing the DFM’s £1.6bn takeover by RBC, Beer said: “We believe that the proposed acquisition by RBC will bring new and exciting opportunities for our clients and people.

“Whilst the transaction is still to complete, we remain focused on delivering our strategic priorities for the year, which will enable us to become a leading advice-focused digitally enabled wealth manager.”

The acquisition is expected to complete by Q3 2022. The deal will create a combined business with £64bn of AUM, annual revenue of £545m for FY 2021 and approximately 600 client-facing professionals as at 31 December 2021.