LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Brooks Macdonald Group said on Thursday that total group funds under management at the end of its first quarter reached a record £16.8bn, making for 2.2% quarter-on-quarter growth.
The AIM-traded firm said the improvement for the three months ended 30 September reflected continued positive net flows, in line with its recent guidance, and strong investment performance.

It said it 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 1.4%, again ahead of the MSCI PIMFA Private Investor Balanced Index, which was up by 0.2%.

UKIM discretionary funds under management had positive net flows of £0.2bn, for an annualised rate of 5.7%.

Within that, both the Bespoke Portfolio Service (BPS) and the Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) had positive net flows, with strong flows in MPS driven 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.

The international business saw a sharp reduction in net outflows during the quarter, with a return to positive net flows expected from the current, second quarter.

Brooks Macdonald said it had a "healthy pipeline", with net flows expected to continue to improve further in line with its previous guidance.

"We have made a solid start to the financial year, with positive net flows in the period contributing to record funds under management of £16.8bn, and we have continued to provide benchmark-beating investment performance for clients," said chief executive officer Andrew Shepherd.

"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."

At 1459 BST, shares in Brooks Macdonald Group were up 0.19% at 2,650p.

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