Schroders’ purchase of River and Mercantile’s solutions business buoyed assets during a volatile first quarter in which its mutual funds and wealth management arm leaked cash.
The FTSE 100 fund group closed out Q1 with £752.bn in assets under management, a 3% increase from the end of December 2021.
The jump in AUM was largely down to its £230m acquisition of River and Mercantile’s solutions business, which added £42bn to Schroders’ existing global solutions offering. At the end of March, the division had total assets of £234.5bn.
Its recent purchase helped offset falling assets from its mutual funds and wealth management arm. The former dropped 5% lower to £109.7bn, while the latter, which includes Cazenove and Schroders Personal Wealth, nudged down 1% to £80.4bn.
But its institutional mandates suffered the biggest drop during the period, with assets lurching from £166.2bn at the end of December to £156.2bn at the end of March.
Alongside its solutions business, Schroders’ asset management and private assets and alternatives divisions continued attracting client flows, both ending the period with assets 4% higher at £556bn and £55.6bn, respectively.
Assets from joint ventures and associates were broadly flat at £116.3bn.
Last month, Schroders joined other asset managers in halting investments in Russian equities in response to the war in Ukraine.
Several of its funds available to UK investors have decent exposure to the Russian Federation, however, including its £750m Global Emerging Markets fund and £1bn Global Recovery fund
See also: Schroders family stake set to shrink as it moves to simplify dual-class share structure
