Liontrust’s net outflows accelerated to £1.1bn in the latest quarter ending in September, most of which (£904m) came from investors removing money from UK retail funds and model portfolios.
Group CEO John Ions said outflows in this area – which represent £22.2bn of the firm’s £26bn total assets under management (AUM) – were caused by investor sheepishness ahead of the October budget, despite initially saying the new Labour government would “herald a period of stability that will be positive for financial market” in July.
“The speculation and uncertainty around changes to taxation and reliefs in the lead up to the budget on 30 October have impacted investor confidence and fund flows for the whole industry including Liontrust,” he said.
“This has contributed to another quarter of net outflows as the challenging environment for active managers has continued for longer than anticipated.”
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Liontrust reported outflows of £923m last quarter, meaning investors have removed a total of £2.1bn in the first half of this financial year.
This comes after the firm suffered another £6.1bn in net outflows over its previous financial year, which ended in March.
Liontrust’s assets under management also fell 4% in the latest quarter to £26bn, leaving it 6.7% lower than it was at the start of this financial year in April.
However, almost half (47.5%) of its UK-domiciled funds have made top quartile returns in their respective sectors over the past year, while just 12.5% were in the lowest quartile.
This story was written by our sister title, Portfolio Adviser
