Hargreaves Lansdown PLC Add to portfolio

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - British fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown on Wednesday posted a 13.9% rise in assets in the first four months of 2019, boosted by market and new business gains. Total assets under administration at the end of April were 97.8 billion pounds ($126.26 billion), up from 85.9 billion at the end-December, it said in a statement. New business wins were driven by an increase in the number of new clients, wealth consolidation onto platform from existing clients, flows into its cash management service and an asset transfer of old business from Witan Investment Services. Hargreaves has benefited as other investment firms look to move groups of old retail client business off their books as the costs of managing smaller client portfolios rises. As well as Witan, Hargreaves has also agreed to take on business from JP Morgan and Baillie Gifford, with most of their clients and respective assets expected to arrive in the early months of the next financial year, it said.

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Citywire AA-rated Train has been building his stake in both in recent months, with his Lindsell Train fund group's ownership of Hargreaves Lansdown rising above 11% of the shares in April, the same month its holding in Schroders reached 10%. 'After sentiment had gradually improved toward the UK through the first few months of 2019 - temporarily or otherwise - shares in UK financial companies suddenly rallied strongly,' he added. 'That move was enough to take Hargraves Lansdown to an all-time high, pushing beyond its September 2018 peak,' he said. While the manager responded to falls in the shares of both Hargreaves and Schroders amid last year's stock market sell-off by buying more, he said this was due to their long-term potential rather than a quick trading opportunity. 'It is important to remind our investors that we do not trade our holdings in these fund management companies,' he said.

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Register free for our breaking news email alerts with analysis and cutting edge commentary from our award winning team. Hargreaves Lansdown has raised £298 million during the offer period for the launch of the HL Select Global Growth Shares fund. Charles Stanley has confirmed the identities of three senior staff currently in consultation about their roles within the organisation. FTSE 100 falls for third day in a row as miners and Asia-focused stocks weaken in response to US president Donald Trump accusing China of breaking a deal reached in trade talks.

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Register free for our breaking news email alerts with analysis and cutting edge commentary from our award winning team. According to The Sunday Times, Monzo is in talks with BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard about offering low-cost funds. The digital bank wants the funds it offers to be cheaper than those available on Hargreaves Lansdown, though the report does not note whether Monzo has plans to offer active funds or just passives. Hargreaves, the UK’s biggest broker, offers some active and passive funds at a lower cost by striking bargains with fund managers to appear on its Wealth 50 selection. For example, Lindsell Train Global Equity, carries a standard charge of 0.72% while it is offered by Hargreaves at 0.52%.

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Register free for our breaking news email alerts with analysis and cutting edge commentary from our award winning team. The funds largely consist of ISA investors in JP Morgan’s open-ended investment company (Oeic) funds. JP Morgan Europe, Middle East and Africa chief executive Patrick Thomson said: ‘Having worked closely with Hargreaves Lansdown in the past, we concluded they would be best placed to provide a high-quality service to clients holding our Oeic managed funds as we cease the administration of ISA accounts.’. Last week’s news that Alexander Darwall is to hand over almost 20% of Jupiter's assets to a little-known manager is a real headturner.

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