Net inflows boost Jupiter Fund Management

Jupiter Fund Management produced solid results on Wednesday as rising markets and the group's strong foothold in the UK helped it deliver net inflows and an increase in assets under management.

The UK listed asset manager said in a trading statement to the end of March that it had recorded £872m in net inflows, which was almost entirely due to its mutual fund business.

This helped Jupiter increase its assets under management to £34.8bn, a 9 per cent rise compared with the end of December.

Maarten Slendebroek, Jupiter chief executive, said: "Our mutual fund franchise again delivered healthy growth this quarter, resulting from the continued delivery of our strategy to diversify by product, client type and geography."

Shares in Jupiter rose 1.24 per cent to 440.60p

Investment groups with strong bases in the UK and continental Europe have benefited from the improving sentiment in the region since the start of the year as some stock markets have broken fresh record highs.

This confidence has been underpinned by the European Central Bank's decision to launch quantitative easing in January.

Jupiter, in particular, has benefited from the more positive outlook on the European economy has come at the same time as the group's move to expand its business in the eurozone by improving and broadening its distribution.

The asset manager, which has largely been focused on the UK retail equity market, has expanded its distribution platform to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong. It is also growing its fixed-income and multi-assets products to complement its equity business.

Jupiter enjoyed net mutual fund inflows of £883m during the first quarter - above every quarter of 2014 and is above every quarterly net inflow that the group has recorded back to the first quarter of 2009. This enabled it to increase its assets under management in mutual funds to more than £30bn.

The results underline the popularity of its new strategic bond funds, which are more flexible than traditional funds. Its equity funds, which include a sizeable funds of fund business, are also popular with investors.

Analysts at Jefferies said: "We view Q1 as a strong result and the company appears to be pursuing the right diversification strategy."

However, the equity research team warned that the market needed to make sure it did not overestimate the impact on management fees from strong first quarter net inflows.

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