CompaniesAug 1 2014

Axa Wealth grows profits as Elevate assets surge

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Funds on Axa Wealth’s Elevate platform were up 31 per cent to £8.4bn, according to the firm’s first half results published this morning (1 August).

This growth helped increase Axa Wealth’s overall funds under management by 10 per cent to £26.7bn during the first half, while total retail sales were up 4 per cent to £1.6bn. Assets have also increased for specialist investment business Architas, up 6 per cent to £13.3bn.

During the first six months of 2014 the firm created New Isa propositions for its Elevate platform and Axa Self Investor and made 144 super clean share class funds available from seven fund houses via the Elevate platform.

On the retirement front, it saw 10 per cent sales growth for its Retirement Wealth Account Sipp and a 40 per cent increase in its family Sipp, as Budget changes drove growth in self-invested pension options.

Profits figures for Elevate itself were not published. Earlier this year its parent holding company, Axa Portfolio Services, revealed it had injected a further £10m in its development in 2013, as it continued to contribute losses of around £15m.

Inflows on to the platform increased by eight per cent to £1.1bn this year, with the firm citing increased reporting functionality that is “helping to give advisers greater oversight of client activity”.

Mike Kellard, chief executive at Axa Wealth, commented: “We’ve managed to deliver another strong performance across the business. There is however still a lot to do if we are truly going to help more people save and invest for the long-term and make the experience as straightforward as we can.

“The Budget has transformed the way we all plan for retirement, and recast what retirement means to the great majority of the population. Our own research shows that as an industry we still have lots to do to convince people of the need to save. My commitment is to do all we can to make investing as simple and intuitive as we possibly can.”