Liontrust weathers £400m outflows following loss of investment mandate
Asset manager Liontrust has been hit by heavy outflows in the first quarter of this year after the loss of an investment mandate saw investors pull £400m from its funds.
In a trading update today, the FTSE-250 firm said the loss of a mandate on its Verbatim Ffunds had sparked heavy outflows, but its overall assets under management had grown 8.5 per cent in the past year to £33.5bn.
Liontrust boss John Ions said it had been a positive year despite the outflows in the past three months.
“While we had net outflows of £0.4 billion in the three months to 31 March 2022, over the whole financial year, Liontrust generated net inflows of £2.5 billion and has delivered positive sales at the start of the new financial year,” he said.
“The largest negative impact on net flows in the last quarter was the loss of the £329 million investment management mandate for the Verbatim Funds.”
Ions said the outflows in the past three months had not swayed the firm and did not change the “the long-term strategy of the business”.
The trading update today comes after the firm completed an acquisition of Majedie Asset Management Limited on 1st April, boosting assets under management by £5.2bn.
Majedie was snapped up well below the original proposed price for the deal after a sustained slide in its share price.
Investors were not deterred by the Liontrust outflows today as shares in the firm jumped 3.21 per cent following the update.