Investors pulled more than £600m from Premier Miton in the year following the announcement of the Premier Asset Management and Miton Group merger.
Annual results, published today (November 26), show Premier Miton saw £620m of net outflows in the year to September, more than double the £306m reported for the previous year.
The merger was announced at the beginning of September 2019 and completed on November 14.
According to Premier Miton, the net outflows were predominantly from the firm’s multi-manager funds, which had experienced a period of weaker short-term performance.
Chief executive Mike O’Shea said it was “disappointing” to report a net outflow, but stressed that Premier Miton was seeing strong demand for its non-UK focused and fixed income funds.
The firm’s assets under management stood at £10.6bn as at September 30, slightly down on the £11.5bn of combined assets the two firms held when they announced the merger in 2019.
Its profit before tax had also slipped from £13.7m last year to £9.6m, partly as a result of merger related costs totalling £4.5m during the year.
Reflecting the lower profit margins, Premier Miton is proposing a final dividend of 4.5p per share, a sixth less than the 5.4p paid out last year.
Mr O’Shea said the integration had been successful in terms of people integration and operational and financial synergies, adding the group now had an “even stronger and scalable investment platform”.
He added: "It has been a landmark year for Premier Miton. Our financial year commenced following the announcement of the merger and I am pleased to report that the integration process has gone to plan in terms of people integration and operational and financial synergies.
“We have also faced the significant market disruption arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and I am pleased with the overall strong performance delivered by our investment strategies via genuine active management."
According to the results, six of the asset manager’s 16 funds were performing in the top decile of their respective Investment Association sectors.
Mr O’Shea said the group had also made a number of key investment hires during the year. This included Lloyd Harris as head of the fixed income team, who Premier Miton swooped in to hire after he was let go from Merian Global Investors.
He added: “We see exciting growth opportunities across our range for both our new and established funds and believe that Premier Miton is well positioned for the future."
imogen.tew@ft.com
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