According to the latest Pridham Report, BlackRock accrued gross sales of £30.2bn over the 12 months of 2023, which translated to £6.4bn of net sales, also the highest net figure of the year.
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Legal & General Investment Management reflected the wider trend of assets returning to the UK funds industry, recording a 26% uptick on 2022’s gross figures for £20.6bn, followed by Fidelity’s £15.2bn and HSBC Asset Management’s £13bn gross inflows.
Among these four groups, 71% of new flows headed into passive funds.
Despite LGIM and Fidelity’s strong performance on a gross basis, the pair slipped down the rankings on a net basis, with LGIM dropping just one place to third, while Fidelity only managed eighth on a net basis.
HSBC AM proved to have stickier assets, taking the second spot with £4.1bn of net assets, while Royal London Asset Management and Rathbones filled out the remaining top five spots.
RLAM was the top ranked active manager across both gross and net sales, although the destination of these funds has changed of late, with previous years witnessing the highest inflows to sustainable funds but in 2023, the highest flows were funnelled to short dated fixed income and money market vehicles.
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The gross and net tables for Q423 appeared largely identical to those for the full year, although there were some different names lower down the table.
Invesco attracted the eighth highest gross and seventh highest net flows over Q423, but did not appear in the annual table, for example, a 50% increase on Q3 retail flows for the business.
“Against a backdrop of an impending general election in the UK and ongoing economic uncertainty, the outlook for asset managers in 2024 remains uncertain”, said Anna Pridham, editor of the Pridham Report.
“However, with the prospect of easing inflation and anticipated interest rate cuts, investors may be finally ready to deploy the record amounts of cash waiting in the wings. The fund groups with the right products stand to benefit.”
