Quilter down on lower sales

FTSE 250 financial services provider Quilter (LON:QLT) has seen its share price fall by 2.39% to 140.60p (as of 15:30 BST) as assets under management and administration were up by 9% at the end of the third quarter relative to the start of the year. Sales for the three months were 12% below the prior quarter.

CEO Paul Feeney commented: “I am pleased that we have seen an 11% increase in AuMA from continuing operations over the course of 2019. As indicated earlier this year, we expected this year to be challenging for net client cash flows, reflecting an uncertain political and economic backdrop coupled with some Quilter-specific factors, in particular, the loss of a certain cohort of investment managers in Quilter Cheviot last year. Positively, gross flows within Quilter Cheviot in the third quarter were up year-on-year partially reflecting the contribution from recent investment manager hires. Notwithstanding the challenging backdrop, we continue to be encouraged by resilient gross flows and high levels of customer asset retention across our businesses which were broadly stable on 2018, excluding the impact of the Quilter Cheviot outflows. While near-term headwinds remain, this demonstrates that our clients and their advisers value Quilter’s integrated advice-led model, and this continues to provide support to our revenue and operating margin outlook.

“The integration of Lighthouse plc and Charles Derby Group are both progressing well and are expected to contribute more meaningfully to flows from next year. The Platform Transformation Programme continues to progress well, with the first migration planned for early 2020, in line with previous announcements. Together, this will help secure our goal of making Quilter the best place to go for trusted financial advice in the UK“.