Liontrust Asset Management today (17 April) reported net outflows of £1.2bn while also flagging plans to expand internationally, in its trading update for three months ended 31 March 2024 which also covered off the end of the group's financial year.
Chief executive John Ions highlighted the arrival of Jeremy Roberts last month as head of global distribution ex-UK which would "enhance our capability to expand distribution internationally. He will focus on building out the client base and sales platform we already have in Europe and Latin America in particular".
Assets under management and advice were £27.8bn as at 31 March 2024, a marginal increase over the period and a decrease of 11.5% over the financial year. AuMA as at 12 April 2024 were £27.6bn.
Ions said: "We start the new financial year with confidence to drive the business forward after the challenges of the last 18 months.
"Liontrust has improving investment performance in the short term as well as excellent performance over the long term and it appears the UK and other developed economies have reached peak interest rates. This follows a period in which many of our core investment strategies, notably quality growth, small/mid-caps and UK equities, have been out of favour, impacting both performance and flows. This led to outflows of £1.2 billion over the three months to 31 March 2024.
"Of our product range, we have seen continuous flows into the European Dynamic Fund - with its AuMA increasing from £747 million as at 31 March 2023 to more than £1.4 billion as at 31 March 2024 - and positive net sales by the Global Innovation team in the Period.
"We have made continued progress against our strategic objectives, enabling us to seek to generate growth through an expanding product range, distribution and client base."
In terms of investment performance, the statement highlighted the European Dynamic Fund as the best performer in its IA sector over three years and ranked 2nd over five years to 31 March 2024. The Global Technology Fund was the best performer in its IA sector over one year and ranked 7th over three years.
Liontrust'r Iron also pointed to the successful launch of the Ireland-domiciled Liontrust GF Pan-European Dynamic Fund at the end of February 2024, which is managed by the Cashflow Solution team.
"Our investment capability will be diversified further when Mark Hawtin and his team join Liontrust next month. They manage both long only and long/short global equity funds and have historically attracted assets from European-based clients. Mark, who has 37 years of investment experience, previously managed one of Europe's largest technology, media and telecoms hedge funds.
"We have also restructured the UK sales team, including the appointment of Kristian Cook as Head of UK Distribution, Mark Wright as Head of UK Regional Distribution and Sophie Andrews joining in June from Franklin Templeton as Head of Strategic Partners and Consolidators.
"Since the start of 2024, there has been substantial activity with clients for the Economic Advantage, Sustainable Investment, Global Innovation and Multi-Asset investment teams in particular and strong client engagement with our communications.
"The leadership team at Liontrust has been strengthened to help drive the future growth of the business. David Boyle, Edward Catton, Martin Kearney and Sally Buckmaster have all taken on greater responsibility to support Vinay and I and the rest of the senior leadership team."
