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Quilter profits jump but wealth manager’s assets plummet amid ‘extremely challenging’ markets
- The wealth manager reported a 9% in profit in the first half of the year
- Net inflows were down from £2bn to £1.4bn while assets dipped 12%
- Shares dipped 4% on Wednesday morning after a short-lived rally last week
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Quilter shares fell on Wednesday after growing profits in the first half were overshadowed by a steep decline in the group’s total assets.
The wealth manager delivered a 9 per cent increase in adjusted profit to £61million on the back of broadly flat revenue and cost discipline.
But, despite net net investor inflows of £1.4billion, assets under management and administration plummeted 12 per cent to £97.8billion due to ‘adverse market movements’.
Quilter boss Paul Feeney said the last six months had been ‘extremely challenging’
Investment platform inflows were down £200million to £1.6billion reflecting a wider slowdown in new client flows during the second quarter.
However, flows from its high net worth segment were up slightly at £500million compared to £400million last year.
Chief executive Paul Feeney said: ‘Operating conditions in the first six months of 2022 have been challenging. Global equity markets have experienced one of the worst periods of negative performance in recent years and traditional 60:40 multi-asset portfolios have had their largest negative year-to-date return on record.’
Net outflows of assets held on third party platforms were £600million, up from £300million the previous year.
Quilter said the decline reflected non-core legacy business coming to an end as well as the transition of assets advised by Quilter Financial Planning on other platforms to the Quilter investment platform.
Quilter shares were down more than 4 per cent to 114.8p approaching midday on Wednesday.
The group’s share price staged a short-lived recovery last week following the news Natwest was mulling a takeover, but the share are still down 35 per cent year to date.
Quilter said: ‘The cost of living and inflationary pressures, coupled with the geopolitical shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, created extremely challenging market conditions and led to a decline in consumer confidence which has impacted investment inflows. In addition, competition in our key markets continues to intensify.
‘These conditions present challenges for short-term financial performance and the pace of delivery of our strategy.’
Quilter also reported it had made good progress building platform flows from IFA firms, with 80 adviser firms using its platform over the last six months.