Financial Results

Old Mutual Wealth Posts Strong Profit, Asset Management Business Leads The Way

Amisha Mehta Reporter London 2 March 2015

Old Mutual Wealth Posts Strong Profit, Asset Management Business Leads The Way

The UK's Old Mutual Wealth has recorded 2014 profits of £227 million, as net inflows at Old Mutual Global Investors soared 250 per cent.

Old Mutual Wealth's profit climbed 5 per cent to £227 million ($349.7 million) over 2014, as its asset management arm more than doubled its profit.

Profits at the UK-based group's asset manager, Old Mutual Global Investors, increased from £15 million in 2013 to £33 million last year, as net inflows soared to £2.5 billion, up 250 per cent from £0.7 billion in 2013. This piloted the group's 61 per cent rise in net inflows to £3.7 billion.

The Global Equity Absolute Return Fund emerged as OMGI's most popular fund amid volatile equity markets, generating £1.7 billion in sales over the course of the year. Further highlighting the group's strong year in asset management was the unit's 31 per cent growth, to £21 billion, in managed funds.

Old Mutual Wealth also attributed last year's growth to its new investment service, WealthSelect, and July's buy of advisor network Intrinsic. Subsequently higher demand pushed gross sales up by 11 per cent to £16 billion in 2014. Meanwhile, funds under management reached a record high of £82.5 billion at the end of the year.

Given the group has only just completed its acquisition of investment manager Quilter Cheviot, it did not include the firm's 10 per cent rise in funds under management over 2014 in the total figures.

Elsewhere, Old Mutual Wealth expects high demand for its pension platform's new flexi-access service in light of April's British pension reforms.

“People don’t wake up in the morning thinking about platforms or individual funds. They think about how they are going to fund their retirement or their children’s school fees; things that mean something to them,” said Old Mutual Wealth's chief executive, Paul Feeney, in the results statement.

“Increasingly I believe advisors and their clients will be looking to source those elements in one place, via companies that can offer an integrated proposition efficiently and cost effectively. That is what we are aiming to achieve and we will continue to work with advisors to build new products and services that they and their clients need.”

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