Premier Miton added £600m to its assets under management in the first three months of the year as investor demand for UK equities started to ramp up.
The asset manager said in its latest AUM update that assets reached £12.6bn at the end of March, up from £12bn at the end of last year.
Between the end of September 2020 and the end of March, AUM increased 19% from £10.6bn.
Equity funds took in £425m during the quarter and Premier Miton chief executive Mike O’Shea (pictured) flagged a growing investor interest in UK equities.
He said: “For the first time in many months, and as we had expected at the time of our last update to shareholders, we saw increasing demand for our UK equity-focused strategies. This sector has been out of favour with investors for some time and it is one where we have a broad and strongly performing range of funds.
“Should this recent improvement in investor sentiment be maintained, we believe that the group is well placed to benefit from increasing fund flows given our excellent track record in the area.”
Multi-asset funds hit by outflows
The group saw net inflows of £193m for the three months to the end of March and £359m in the last six months.
Its multi-asset funds, however, saw net outflows of £243m in the quarter and £627m worth of redemptions since the end of September.
In January, Premier Miton announced a major shake-up of its multi-manager range and reduced fees across the funds.
O’Shea said: “During the quarter, we completed a number of changes to our multi-asset funds with the objective of reducing overall costs for investors. Of the £3.9bn the group now manages in multi-asset funds, some £2.2bn is managed on a multi-manager basis and £1.7bn is managed through direct investment in underlying securities.
“We continue to believe that both strategies have a role to play in client portfolios and we are proud of our long-term investment records in both areas.”
