Liontrust Asset Management today (15 April) flagged how it had strengthened its international distribution capability with the appointments of Òscar Andreu as managing director, head of distribution for Switzerland, and Phil Rosenberg as head of Middle East and Asia, in its trading update for the three months ended 31 March 2025.

"Both Òscar and Phil have extensive experience, knowledge and contacts in their respective territories. They are key additions as we seek to take advantage of the potential for growth of our client base outside the UK", the statement said as it revealed higher net outflows over the period, from £1.2bn in 2024 to £1.3bn in Q1 2025.

Assets under management and advice (AUMA) were £22.6bn as at 31 March 2025, a decrease over the period of 8.1%.

AUMA as at 10 April 2025 were £21.6bn.

John Ions, chief executive officer, said: "It feels that over the past few years, the only certainty has been uncertainty. The current day-to-day unpredictability and fluctuations in markets reinforces our belief in active management and the long-term power of robust and repeatable investment processes.

"Our focus remains on what is within our control. We continue to develop the business and are confident we have been making the right changes to ensure it is in the best possible shape for the future.

"The Liontrust brand is very strong and we are continually engaging with our clients. We receive great feedback on our service and communications directly and through market research and these are more important than ever at times like this in helping clients to navigate volatile markets.

"The extreme volatility and dislocations we have seen in markets over the past couple of weeks are demonstrating the importance of, and opportunities for, active management and stock picking."

He continued: "We continue to expand and enhance our investment capability. The GF Global Alpha Long Short Fund has been launched for Mark Hawtin's Global Equities team, and we are also adding the GF Global Alpha Fund (both of which are domiciled in Ireland). In January, the Economic Advantage team's Alex Wedge and Bobby Powar took on management of the Global Smaller Companies Fund, using the same investment process that has been applied to the UK Smaller Companies Fund since 1998.

"The Global Fixed Income team has been integrated into the Multi-Asset team. This enhances the macroeconomic and fixed income expertise on the Multi-Asset team and provides greater scale for our fixed income funds."

Irons further said: "We are completing our enhanced operating model. BlackRock's Aladdin platform was implemented in July 2024 and is working well. We now have a much more extensive relationship with BNY's front and middle office teams and the BNY Data Vault system is embedded in our operating model and is being used day to day.

"We are continuing to work with BNY Buyside Trading Solutions ("BTS") on our trading capabilities and are now utilising BTS for North and Central American trading, with other markets going live by the end of June 2025. This collaboration extends our trading capabilities beyond UK trading hours and gives us access to more counterparties, with a solution that is scalable and with a partner that is investing heavily in its trading services.

"The enhancements we have made to the business, our strong investment capability, brand and client service, and the robust operating model give us confidence we can emerge stronger from the current turbulent environment and help our clients to do so as well."

He added: "In November 2024, we announced a proposed reduction of roles across our business, and this is now mostly complete, with good progress achieved on fully realising the further cost efficiencies we announced in January 2025. Annualised savings of employee-related, member-related and non-staff related expenses are expected to be around £6.0 million and implementation costs for the role reductions and non-staff related expenses are anticipated to be around £4.5 million."