(Reuters) -Jupiter Fund Management said retail clients pulled 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) in the first quarter, ahead of the imposition of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, although institutional inflows remained more resilient amidst volatility.
Wealth managers have had a sour start to their fiscal year, amid market volatility and growing recession fears sparked by a raft of tariffs announcements by the Trump administration on many trading partners.
Peer St James’s Place reported a dip in assets in the first quarter, although it beat net inflow expectations and said it had seen good levels of client engagement so far this month.
Both Jupiter and SJP struck a cautiously optimistic tone about client sentiment in their trading updates on Thursday.
“We have not seen any material change in client sentiment or flow activity to date,” Jupiter said, acknowledging that elevated market volatility would affect client risk appetite.
It reported 1 billion pounds in inflows from institutional clients, leading to a net outflow of 500 million pounds – well below the 1.4 billion pounds estimated by Panmure Liberum analysts.
The company noted early evidence of investors looking to reallocate assets away from the U.S. and into markets such as the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific.
SJP reported inflows of 1.69 billion pounds in the first quarter, beating a company-compiled consensus of 1.37 billion pounds.
The FTSE 100 company is in the midst of executing a six-year plan to cut costs, and reorganise its services and pricing as part of a strategy reboot.
“There had been concerns that the imminent introduction of the new pricing structure might mean a hiatus in business production, but there is no sign of that,” Panmure Liberum analysts said.
Shares in Jupiter slipped 1.4%, while SJP shares were up 0.5% in morning trading.
Jupiter had total assets of 44.3 billion pounds at March 31, while SJP’s assets stood at 188.59 billion pounds.
($1 = 0.7527 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Rachna Uppal)
