25 Oct 2019 07:00
25 October 2019
Nucleus Financial Group plc
('Nucleus' or the 'Company')
Q3 2019 AUA update
Assets under administration increase 13.1% year-to-date
Nucleus (AIM: NUC), a leading independent wrap platform provider, today publishes an update on its assets under administration (AUA) in respect of the three month period to 30 September 2019.
The Company continues to grow AUA, which stood at £15.7bn as at 30 September 2019, up 6.8% over Q3 2018 and 13.1% year-to-date. By comparison, the FTSE All-Share Index fell by 1.6% year-on-year and increased 10.5% year-to-date.
Highlights
- AUA increased to £15.7bn, up 6.8% year-on-year and an increase of 13.1% year-to-date
- Gross inflows increased for the third consecutive quarter to £490m
- Net inflows remain steady with both Q2 and Q3 net inflows at £111m
- Advisers actively using the platform increased 2.1% year-on-year to 1,389*
- Customer numbers increased 3.6% year-on-year to 95,373
- Continued investment in our core product in Q3 with the implementation of new functionality within our customer portal, 'Nucleus Go' and post the reporting period, the implementation of new paperless correspondence options for customers
- Continued investment in platform development during Q4 is due to deliver new trading functionality, bulk switching capability, a faster payments service for withdrawals and new telephony infrastructure
AUA and inflows
| Quarter ended30 Sept 2019 | Quarter ended 30 Sept 2018 | Nine months ended 30 Sept 2019 | Nine months ended30 Sept 2018 |
| £m | £m | £m | £m |
Opening AUA | 15,332 | 14,339 | 13,884 | 13,577 |
Inflows | 490 | 563 | 1,444 | 1,828 |
Outflows | (379) | (281) | (1,088) | (820) |
Net flows | 111 | 282 | 356 | 1,008 |
Market movements | 254 | 72 | 1,457 | 108 |
Closing AUA | 15,697 | 14,693 | 15,697 | 14,693 |
Daily average AUA | 15,552 | 14,585 | 15,004 | 14,097 |
David Ferguson, Nucleus' founder and CEO, commented:
"Momentum has continued with AUA increasing over 13% year-to-date compared to a FTSE All-Share increase of 10.5% in the same period. Gross inflows increased, albeit marginally, for the third successive quarter against a backdrop of continued investor uncertainty. Outflows remain higher than normal but in line with expectations, and reflect primarily the ongoing impact of a small number of firms that have been acquired by consolidators. Net inflows remained stable at £111m and, as previously reported, we are in the early stages of a new partnership agreement with one IFA consolidator and are in continued discussions with others. We expect these new relationships to enhance resilience of net inflows while also presenting future growth opportunities."
"In September we held our eleventh annual conference where we welcomed over 300 delegates and confirmed our intention to continue investing in the platform proposition. We're very positive on product development and developments completed in the quarter (or shortly after), included enhancements to our customer portal, Nucleus Go, and new paperless correspondence options for customers."
"We have significantly increased the velocity of our change programme this year. This planned and marked acceleration has continued into Q4 with a series of further enhancements. These include new trading functionality that allows the placing of multiple trade instructions at the same time, enhanced bulk switching capability enabling more efficient performance, the introduction of a faster payments service for withdrawals and new telephony infrastructure. All of which are designed to significantly improve service delivery, engagement with customers and advisers, and operational resilience."
Historical flows and AUA data by quarter
| Q4 2016 | Q1 2017 | Q2 2017 | Q3 2017 | Q4 2017 | Q1 2018 | Q2 2018 | Q3 2018 | Q4 2018 | Q1 2019
| Q2 2019 | Q3 2019 |
| £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m |
Opening AUA | 10,659 | 11,144 | 11,897 | 12,401 | 12,889 | 13,577 | 13,527 | 14,339 | 14,693 | 13,884 | 14,753 | 15,332 |
Inflows | 507 | 653 | 671 | 687 | 597 | 665 | 600 | 563 | 462 | 466 | 488 | 490 |
Outflows | (214) | (225) | (249) | (261) | (205) | (254) | (285) | (281) | (277) | (332) | (377) | (379) |
Net flows | 293 | 428 | 422 | 426 | 392 | 411 | 315 | 282 | 185 | 134 | 111 | 111 |
Market movements | 192 | 325 | 82 | 62 | 296 | (461) | 497 | 72 | (994) | 735 | 468 | 254 |
Closing AUA | 11,144 | 11,897 | 12,401 | 12,889 | 13,577 | 13,527 | 14,339 | 14,693 | 13,884 | 14,753 | 15,332 | 15,697 |
Daily average AUA | 10,849 | 11,518 | 12,198 | 12,715 | 13,313 | 13,609 | 14,086 | 14,585 | 14,202 | 14,399 | 15,047 | 15,552 |
* Q3 2018 restated from 1,391 to 1,360
~ Ends ~
For further information please contact:
Nucleus
David Ferguson, CEO Tel: +44 (0)13 1226 9800
Stuart Geard, Chief Financial Officer
Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Hugh Morgan Tel: +44 (0)20 7408 4090
Edward Mansfield
Daniel Bush
Camarco (Media enquiries)
Jennifer Renwick Tel: +44 (0)20 3757 4994
Jake Thomas
Notes to Editors
About Nucleus
Nucleus is a wrap platform founded in 2006 by advisers committed to altering the balance of power in the industry by putting the customer centre stage. It provides independent wrap platform services to 1,389 active adviser users and works with more than 880 financial adviser firms as at 30 September 2019. It is responsible for AUA of £15.7bn on behalf of more than 95,000 customers.
The multi award-winning platform offers a range of custody, trading, payment, reporting, fee-handling, research and integration services across a variety of tax wrappers and more than 6,500 asset choices including cash, OEICs, unit trusts, offshore funds, structured products and listed securities, including ETFs and investment trusts. The platform currently facilitates over 1.1 million customer account transactions on average per month.
Nucleus has won CoreData's 'Best medium sized platform' for 2019 (and the last eight years), the Schroders 'Platform of the Year' award for 2018 (and the last three years) and won 'Best Platform' and 'Platform Innovation' at the 2018 Money Marketing Awards.