LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Rathbone Brothers posted a positive fourth quarter, though it did report a mixed 2015 in a trading update on Thursday.
The FTSE 250 fund manager reported it had total funds under management at 31 December 2015 of £29.2bn, up 5.8% on 30 September and 7.4% at 31 December 2014.

Of those funds, £26.1bn were managed by Rathbone Investment Management - up 5.7%. At the same time, the FTSE 100 Index decreased by 4.9%.

Total net inflows into Rathbone Investment Management was £368m in the quarter, and £1.4bn for the year.

That was down on 2014, when it was £4bn, though that year's figure included the impact of a number of acquisitions.

The underlying rate of net organic growth in funds under management for Rathbone Investment Management was 3.7% for the quarter - up from 2.1% in 2014 - and 3% for the year - down from 4% the previous year.

The £3.1bn balance of funds was under the management of Rathbone Unit Trust Management, which was up 24% from £2.5bn at 31 December 2014.

Total net fund inflows in that division were £165m in the quarter - up from £115m a year earlier - and £371m for the year - down from £554m in 2014.

Rathbone Brothers also announced that, following its announcement on 1 October 2015, the company completed its purchase of the remaining 80.1% of the issues share capital of Vision Independent Financial Planning and Castle Investment Solutions on 31 December 2015.

"We continue to pursue our growth objectives but will more frequently review the timing and priority of our projects as long as the financial markets remain subdued", the firm's board said in a statement.

"We retain an appetite for acquisitions that fit our culture, and look forward to 2016 with cautious optimism", it added.

In a separate announcement, Rathbone Brothers said it had exchanged contracts for a 17 year lease on 75,000 square feet of office space at 8 Finsbury Circus in London.

It said this would secure enough capacity in the capital to meet its longer term growth plans, with a schedule to move from Rathbone's current 44,000 square feet premises at 1 Curzon Street in the first quarter of 2017.

"We believe that the high quality new development at 8 Finsbury Circus represents the best single site solution that not only provides a welcoming environment for our clients, but also created the capacity we need to support our longer term growth plans", said Rathbone Brothers chief executive Phillip Howell.

Rathbone Brothers warned the move would result in exceptional accounting charges of £0.4m in 2015 and £9.5m in 2016, reflecting the rental costs of 8 Finsbury Circus after completion, as well as provisions for dilapidation and accelerated depreciation charges for 1 Curzon Street.

It also said a non-cash charge would be incurred on the vacation of Curzon Street, representing the discounted cost of the remaining lease obligations which end in 2023, expected to be in the region of £8m.

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