Wednesday 07 February 2024 7:04 am  |  Updated:  Wednesday 07 February 2024 7:07 am

BlackRock holds top spot for tenth time in ‘another bruising year’ for UK fund industry

By: Elliot Gulliver-Needham

Investment Reporter

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BlackRock clocked in its tenth consecutive year in attracting the most new business throughout UK funds in 2023, according to the quarterly Pridham Report.

The report, which tracks gross and net retail sales to the largest fund houses in the UK, found that while gross annual flows increased from 2022, 2023 had still been “another bruising year” of depressed inflows.

BlackRock came in first place for gross retail sales throughout the year, followed by Legal & General, Fidelity and HSBC AM.

While still in second, Legal & General had a strong year, reporting a 26 per cent rise in gross sales. Across the top four, 71 per cent of new money went into passive funds.

While the top managers stayed in the same order from 2022, M&G rocketed up from outside the top 10 for the first time ever to number six, due to a 90 per cent increase in gross sales, pushing JP Morgan from sixth to tenth.

“M&G’s Japan fund ranked among the best-selling retail funds of 2023, and the M&G Emerging Markets Bond fund was another top seller,” the report said.

Liontrust, which sat as seventh in 2022, dropped out of the rankings completely, while BNY Mellon also entered the top ten for the first time, as sales grew 22 per cent for the firm.

Meanwhile in net flows, BlackRock reclaimed the top spot after Fidelity eclipsed it in 2022, sending the firm all the way down to eighth.

HSBC and Legal & General traded between the second and third place, while M&G, along with Man GLG and Hargreaves Lansdown, all came into the top ten.

Anna Pridham, editor of the report, stressed that while gross sales showed that established groups like Schroders, Jupiter and JP Morgan are attracting significant new flows, “as mature businesses, they also contend with high levels of natural outflows and switches”.

She added: “With the prospect of easing inflation and anticipated interest rate cuts, investors may be finally ready to deploy the record amounts of cash waiting in the wings. The fund groups with the right products stand to benefit.”