Tracker funds push Blackrock to top of Q2

According to the latest edition of the Pridham Report, Blackrock funds saw £3.4bn of gross retail sales during the quarter, while the net figure came in at just under £2bn.

Henderson Global Investors also put in a strong performance, with a 27% quarter-on-quarter increase in net sales.

According to the report, Henderson has enjoyed a renaissance over the past twelve months after recovering from the indigestion of absorbing Gartmore and New Star.

“A major contributor has been sales of Henderson UK Property which has benefited from the resurgence in investor interest in this asset class over the past year, helped by this fund’s focus on income,” the report said.
Investor interest in property was also behind the resurgence in SWIP’s sales, the report said, partly as a result of the vigorous promotion of the SWIP property offering by new owner, Aberdeen.

But, it was not just the old guard that saw increases. As has been the case for a few months now, now fund trends story would be complete without mention of the performance of Woodford Investment Management, which brought in an estimated £1.6bn in net retail sales during the quarter, which puts it into second place.

Fundsmith, which came in seventh in terms of net retail sales saw its net sales more than double over the period, to £279m the report said, prompting Helen Pridham, editor of The Pridham Report, to say: “The success of Woodford Investment Management and Fundsmith, along with other small independent managers, demonstrates that there is still plenty of room in the UK market despite all the talk of concentration in recent years.”

Source: Pridham Report

* This is an estimated figure