Nucleus Financial, the Edinburgh-based independent in the wrap platform market, has unveiled its strongest ever first half performance and said it believes bigger rivals may be faltering.
Founder David Ferguson said that within months of the new pension reforms kicking in, the market appeared to dividing into “winners and losers”, with consolidation activity already under way, adding: “Thankfully we appear to have got the right side.”
The business, 51 per cent owned by 75 financial advisory firms and serving 400 firms in total, added over £1billion of new assets in the first half of 2015 to reach £8.8bn, up 22 per cent on 12 months earlier.
Turnover raced ahead by 33 per cent to £14.8m to bring in operating profits of £2.4m.
Mr Ferguson, the former life industry executive who founded the business nine years ago with seven IFA firms in support, said: “The market has been through an extraordinary disruption, with changing technology, customer requirements and regulation over the last couple of years. Inevitably there will be winners and losers.”
He commented that Axa was said to be looking to exit the UK, Legal and General appeared to be ready to sell Cofunds, and some big-name platforms were struggling financially, while the likes of Standard Life, Nucleus and Transact were performing strongly, but he dmitted it was “too early to say the market is polarising”.
Earlier this week Standard Life’s head of wrap business David Tiller claimed advisers were “already beginning to place clients with those platforms they see as sustainable” and affirmed Standard’s view that the number of platforms in the market will halve over the next three years.
Mr Ferguson said: “As an adviser-built and adviser-owned platform, these financial results for the first half of 2015 - against a backdrop of turmoil in our sector with large scale corporate withdrawals from the UK sitting alongside confirmed takeovers and rumoured sales – are further validation of the strength, value and absolute relevance of our business model.”
He said those firms which were struggling were perhaps serving IFAs who were now having a tough time. “If there is no volume coming through, no matter what the platform does it will be really tough. Some have got themselves into business models where operating and sales costs aren’t right and perhaps shareholders are saying enough is enough.”
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