The London-listed wealth management firm reported a sharp rise in assets under management for 2014.

Rathbone Brothers said total funds under management rose almost 24 per cent year-on-year to stand at £27.2 billion ($42.1 billion) at 31 December 2014, shrugging off unfavourable market conditions during that period.

The UK-listed wealth management house said its AuM performance happened during a period when the FTSE 100 Index of UK blue-chip stocks, for example, had fallen 2.7 per cent and the FTSE WMA Balanced Index rose by only 4.2 per cent.

The total net annual growth rate of funds under management for Rathbone Investment Management, part of Rathbone Brothers, was 19.6 per cent (2013: 9.0 per cent). This comprised £3.2 billion of acquired inflows (2013: £600 million), including £2.6 billion in relation to the Jupiter Asset Management and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management transactions, and £0.8 billion of net organic growth (2013: £900 million). The underlying rate of net organic growth was 4.0 per cent in 2014 (2013: 5.4 per cent).

Rathbone Unit Trust Management saw record gross sales of £1.0 billion in 2014, and saw funds under management increase by 38.9 per cent to £2.5 billion at 31 December 2014 (2013: £1.8 billion).     
There was a 12.1 per cent rise in underlying operating income at Rathbone Investment Management to £185.3 million in 2014 from a year earlier.