In a trading update this morning, Hargreaves said the business was helped through transfers from a competitor platform and a small direct back book transfer from Old Mutual. It added increased digital marketing and ongoing wealth consolidation had driven inflows.
The update said despite negative market growth and the impact this had on investor sentiment, AUA still rose to £88.8bn to 30 April 2018, up from £77bn during the same period last year.
It landed £3.3bn of net new business over the period. Market movements delivered a £600,000 hit to AUA.
Net revenue for the four months was at £150.6m, an increase from £130.9m last year. Net inflows were also up from £5.6bn last year to £6.6bn for the period.
The direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform attracted 60,000 net new clients, taking active client numbers to 1,075m.
Chris Hill, chief executive officer (pictured) said the firm had “another good tax year end”, delivering strong business and welcoming new clients.
He added: “We have continued to invest in our helpdesk, operations and technology teams and I’m pleased that the consequence of this is that we are able to support stronger volumes of client activity whilst maintaining our leading reputation for client service.
“We believe continuing to make investments in client service and technology is crucial to the ongoing success of Hargreaves Lansdown.”
In his latest fund update, Finsbury Growth and Income investment trust manager Nick Train said he was using Hargreaves as a play on UK markets, which are set to benefit if the oil price rallies.
Train said in the update: “We know that HL believes its business would grow even faster if the UK stock market had a decent run, because many of their clients express disenchantment with the long term returns the UK has delivered.”
