The figure, which represented around a third of Miton’s assets, is in large part a result of the retirement of Bill Mott. Of the money leaving the business £510m was due to the ‘consequential loss of a segregated mandate and two larger redemptions from the Miton Income Fund’ after Mott stepped away.
There was also £503m in outflows due to ‘poor performance’ of its multi-asset funds in the first half of last year, while £438m was taken out of the firm through the sale of the Liverpool business.
On the upside, £708m of new money flowed into the firm with the rejuvenated multi-asset offering under new manager David Jane and its UK Value Opportunities Fund performing well.
Alongside the results reporting, Miton revealed plans to launch the Miton UK MicroCap Trust. It intends to raise £100m and to list on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. A prospectus will be published in early April, with the listing towards the end of that month.
The trust will build a ‘diversified portfolio of UK microcap companies’ typically with a market capitalisation of less than £150 million. No specific number of holdings is being targeted but the managers expect that the number will ‘typically be over 120 when fully invested.’
“In a period of extended weak economic growth, it is microcap companies that often have the greatest growth prospects, said Miton MD Gervais Williams. “Our opportunity, as we see it, is not just about the historical outperformance of this wide opportunity set of businesses, but also related to the scope for a genuinely active approach to add extra return on top.”
“The new Miton UK MicroCap Trust is a very different investment proposition to others, hopefully offering further diversity to investors’ portfolios in a way that’s complementary to many other funds and trusts,” he added.
