The UK’s largest wealth manager recorded net inflows of £5.2bn, 21% higher than the £4.3bn flows it attracted during the first half in 2017.
SJP’s fund under management have risen 16% in the last 12 months from £83bn.
Although weak markets took a toll on SJP’s assets in the first quarter, by the end of June FUM was at £96.6bn
Chief executive Andrew Croft (pictured) said the strong flows were down to improvement in client retention, which was 96% in H1 18.
SJP retains the lion’s share of the DFM market, despite charging higher fees than many of its competitors.
The group’s dominance is due partly to its growing partnership of IFAs. By the end of the first half of the year, its network of adviser members had grown to 3,810.
However, the wealth manager’s share price was trading 5% lower at£11.46 per share on Tuesday as it confirmed higher costs for its multi-year platform migration and that managing director of investments David Lamb will retire by early 2019.
Lamb will be replaced by Robert Gardner who will join the executive board as the investment proposition lead on 7 January 2019. Gardner comes from Redington, which provides SJP with a range of consultancy services.
Man assets dragged down by absolute return
Man Group meanwhile saw net inflows of $8.3bn into its range of hedge funds and absolute return vehicles, topping H1 17’s net inflows of $8.2bn.
Shares in Man Group climbed following the news and were trading at 184p (+6.25%) at the time of writing.
Luke Ellis, Man Group CEO, said the group had seen sustained organic growth over the first half of the year due to “high levels of interest from our global client base in a broad range of strategies”.
Although alternative Ucits funds on average have struggled to produce meaningful returns year-to-date, discretionary managers have been increasingly shunning bonds in favour of hedge fund like products.
Despite the higher injection of client cash, FUM was only marginally higher, weighed down by weaker performance in five out of Man Group’s seven absolute return funds and negative currency effects. In total, negative investment movement dented FUM by $1.7bn during the period.
The quintuplet, which includes the four funds from its AHL range and Numeric Alternative Market Neutral, all ended the six-month period with negative returns.
The alternative asset manager’s GLG European Long Short and Man GLG Global Credit Multi Strategy faired better, delivering 2.3% and 3.8% returns respectively.
Man Group reported pre-tax profits of $153m in the six months to 30 June, up 5% from $145m the year prior.
Profits from management fees were up 26% to $120m from $94m in H1 17.
But Ellis cautioned that flows moving forward were likely to be less stable.
“As we have said many times before, and will probably say again, the institutional nature of our business means that flows are likely to be uneven on a quarter-to-quarter basis,” he said. “We continue to invest in talent, research and technology and remain focused on delivering superior risk adjusted performance for our clients, thereby creating long term value for our shareholders.”
