Hargreaves Lansdown reports strong third quarter

Published by

Peter Davison

DIY investing platform Hargreaves Lansdown has reported a strong third quarter, with assets under administration up four per cent to £132 billion in first three months of the year.

New business, said the Bristol-based firm, was up 14 per cent to £1.6 billion, according to financial results published on Thursday.

However, asset retention was lower than in the same period last year as investors continued to withdraw cash from schemes.

CEO Chris Hill said: "We delivered net new business of £1.6 billion in the period, up 14 per cent on last year as the combination of changes to the tax landscape, our marketing activity, and ongoing developments in our core propositions generated a call to action for clients in the run up to tax year end.

"Macroeconomic uncertainty continues but the improved activity demonstrates that as confidence returns, HL is well positioned to grow and support new and existing clients on their investment and savings journeys.

"During the quarter, we launched a new cash ISA, three new Portfolio Funds and our enhanced Share Exchange service helping clients enable efficient use of their tax allowances.

"The targeted price reduction we have made to our LISA product and making our Junior ISA fee free demonstrates how we are thinking about specific improvements to help families manage wealth and to help those starting out on their investing journeys."

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.