River and Mercantile boss Mike Faulkner has attributed the firm’s risk-on positioning for its rising assets under management in Q1 2019.
Investment performance added £1.1bn to AUM over the period with sales adding £1bn. Fiduciary management and equity solutions performed particularly strong over the period, adding £600m and £400m respectively.
Total assets hit £36.3bn, up 6% over the quarter.
Chief executive Mike Faulkner said the firm’s ability to respond quickly to asset allocation is one of its “key differentiating capabilities”.
“Having positioned our clients cautiously in previous periods, I stated in the last trading statement that our macroeconomic signals indicated that risk assets were likely to provide positive returns. We therefore adapted our client portfolios accordingly and were able to capture the market returns for them.”
Investment performance for the period was positive across all divisions, Faulkner said.
When it came to sales, he highlighted that the Dynamic Asset Allocation fund took in £350m over the period taking its total assets to half a billion.
Faulkner said they continue to have a positive outlook for equity markets going into the next quarter – the final in River and Mercantile’s financial year.
Nucleus improves tech capabilities in Q1
Meanwhile, Nucleus reported a similar rise in assets and highlighted its software upgrade in its assets under administration for the period.
The adviser platform enjoyed similar asset growth to River and Mercantile at 6.3%. It now has AUA of £14.8bn.
Chief executive David Ferguson said momentum built over the period, particularly in the lead up to the tax-year end, which took place outside the reporting period on 5 April.
Ferguson said: “We completed a change to our technology and BPO services model in Q4 2018 with the intention that this will improve our change velocity and I’m pleased to report that Q1 has borne this out with a significant upgrade to the core platform software, the launch of our new Junior Isa product, and the beta launch of our new client portal, Nucleus ‘Go’ all successfully completed in the quarter.”
Additionally, he said the platform has completed its Mifid II regulatory costs and charges disclosure after the reporting period in April 2019.
