Third quarter results show strong fund flows into the UK Alpha fund, now managed by Buxton. The fund is now £420m larger than it was when Buxton announced his departure from Schroders in March. This is a significant proportion of the £1.75bn drop in size for the Schroder UK Alpha fund since Buxton left.
The group said that it had also seen strong inflows into its Spectrum multi-asset range of funds, managed by John Ventre. Its Global Equity Absolute Return, UK Smaller Companies and UK Mid Cap funds also posted strong growth. Overall assets under management rose 10% to £15.2bn. Gross sales were £2bn, up 79% over the same period last year.
Under the Skandia Wealth brand, UK platform sales were £1.2bn, up 40% on the same period last year. Assets under management now stand at £26.2bn, up 16% from the start of the year. However, the group said that overall UK sales for Skandia Wealth were slower following the implementation of the Retail Distribution Review. Funds under management rose just 6% to £14.7bn at the end of the period.
The group said that the priority for Skandia Wealth was to deliver its new Select range of funds. the group announced in August that it was delaying the launch until 2014 in order to add model portfolio functionality. The Select panel comprises eight fund groups including Aberdeen, Blackrock, BNY Mellon, Fidelity, Henderson, JP Morgan, Schroders and Threadneedle who will run 50 funds on a sub-advised basis.
The group’s international business saw a small rise in gross sales (from £422m to £427m). The group has closed its businesses in Germany and Austria to new business, which has resulted in a reduction in sales from Europe overall.
