UK-quoted fund management firm Miton Group has reported a fall in assets under management to £2.6 billion ($4.4 billion), down from £3.1 billion at the end of December, following the sale of Miton Capital partners in March this year.

UK-quoted fund management firm Miton Group has reported a fall in assets under management to £2.6 billion ($4.4 billion), down from £3.1 billion at the end of December, following the sale of Miton Capital partners in March this year.

In January, Miton Group said that it was selling its Liverpool fund management business to Seneca Investment Managers for £6.4 million. Miton said that following a detailed review of the Liverpool business, it had concluded that despite recent growth, there was less prospect of rapid growth of its assets under management compared with other parts of the group.

Miton said in a half-year trading update that total funds saw net outflows of £21 million for the six months, as equity inflows of £162 million were offset by multi-asset fund outflows of £182 million.  

Strong fund flows into UK Smaller Companies and UK Value Opportunities funds offset outflows from multi-asset funds. The Diverse Income Trust raised a further £50 million C share issue in June and the trust has now grown to exceed £300 million.

Miton said that following the appointment of David Jane and two colleagues in June that it expected outflows from its multi-asset funds to “moderate in time”.  

"In the first six months Miton successfully addressed two key objectives with the sale of the Liverpool business and the appointment of David Jane to manage our multi-asset funds. Miton is in a strong position with a highly regarded roster of fund managers, a rising profile amongst our clients, scalable systems and growing profitability and cash generation,” said executive chairman Ian Dighe.

Earlier this month, Miton Group announced that lead manager of the PSigma Income fund, Bill Mott, is to retire from the group and the fund management industry at Christmas, with co-manager Eric Moore promoted to replace him. Mott will continue to be involved in the management of the fund until his retirement date.

Gervais Williams, who became co-manager of the fund at the end of last year, will continue in his role providing specialist mid- and small-cap experience. Miton said that there will be no change to the investment objective of the fund or to its thematic investment approach. It will remain a predominantly mega-cap fund.