Brooks Macdonald's international arm sees 'sharp reduction in net outflows'

Brooks Macdonald's international business saw a sharp reduction in net outflows during the three months to 30 September 2021, with a "return to positive net flows expected from Q2".

In its latest funds update today (14 October) for Q1 of its financial year, total Group funds under management (FUM) at the end of September reached £16.8bn (30 June 2021: £16.5bn), an overall increase of 2.2% in the quarter.

This reflected continued positive net flows, in line with the guidance given at the annual results in September, and strong investment performance, Brooks Macdonald said.

The Group overall had a solid start to the financial year with positive net flows, in line with the prior quarter and running at 3.1% on an annualised basis.

Overall investment performance for the period was robust at 1.4%, again ahead of the MSCI PIMFA Private Investor Balanced Index which was up by 0.2%.

UKIM discretionary FUM had positive net flows of £0.2bn, an annualised rate of 5.7%.

Within that, both the Bespoke Portfolio Service and the Managed Portfolio Service had positive net flows, with strong flows in MPS driven in particular by the continued success of the Group's business-to-business offering, BM Investment Solutions.

Flows in the UKIM Funds business were slightly negative, with the Defensive Capital Fund continuing to be affected by outflows in the absolute return sector.

Andrew Shepherd, CEO of Brooks Macdonald said: "We have made a solid start to the financial year, with positive net flows in the period contributing to record FUM of £16.8bn, and we have continued to provide benchmark-beating investment performance for clients.

There is a clear energy about the business, helped by the passion and excitement our team gets from increasingly meeting face-to-face with advisers and clients again. We have a strong pipeline and we are confident of further improvement in net flows over the course of the year."