Invesco Perpetual’s status as the UK’s supreme fund management empire could be slipping through its fingers as it prepares to plunge from first to fourth in the domestic fund rankings.
Invesco has now lost the top spot, in the latest monthly UK-domiciled funds data from industry trade body the IMA, to wealth management giant St James’s Place (SJP).
It comes as the high-profile departure of its flagship fund manager, Neil Woodford, earlier this year to set up a rival fund house has been followed by investor outflows worth billions.
Now, as recent big deals in the investment sector are finalised, the Henley-on-Thames fund manager, the UK division of US firm Invesco, could be set to slip into relatively mediocre fourth place.
When Aberdeen Asset Management begins incorporating the assets of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership into its reporting, the group will have UK-based funds worth roughly £70bn, based on current figures, making it by far the dominant player.
Aberdeen will be followed in the list by Standard Life Investments, which stands to report UK assets of £57.2bn when it merges in the funds of Ignis Asset Managers, the current numbers suggest.
Mr Woodford’s former Invesco Perpetual High Income fund has fallen in size by roughly 10 per cent from £13.9bn, at the end of October last year when Mr Woodford resigned, to £12.4bn now
His other former flagship fund, Invesco Income, has fallen by just under 35 per cent from nearly £10.2bn to £6.6bn.
The numbers look set to get worse after platform giant Skandia recently announced it was shutting down Life funds with £640m that were being run by Invesco’s replacement for Mr Woodford, Mark Barnett.
Conversely, the retail SJP UK High Income fund, run by Mr Woodford at his new firm, has risen nearly 10 per cent in size since the manager announced his resignation, in a move that has helped SJP’s assets to grow.
At the end of October, the fund was more than £1.2bn but is now just shy of £1.4bn, according to data from FE Analytics.
Invesco briefly lost the top spot for UK-based funds in 2012, when M&G Investments’ strong sales into its bond funds run by Richard Woolnough saw it take the top spot before stellar returns from Mr Woodford saw Invesco regain its crown.
However, Invesco Perpetual is projected to remain the dominant force when considering UK-based retail fund assets alone as its household name status remains intact.
The group has also started gaining traction with a major multi-asset fund it launched last year, which now stands at £456m. Its £3bn Distribution fund, run by bond duo Paul Causer and Paul Read and Ciaran Mallon, is also among funds at the group that continue to raise money.
Andrew Humphries, marketing director at SJP, put the firm’s success down to the quality of the third-party managers who run funds for it, as well as the fact it offers access to firms otherwise unavailable to the UK retail market, including Aristotle, Burgundy and Wasatch Advisors.
“This is clearly what stands us apart from others,” he said.
Mr Humphries said the company had a 95 per cent year-on-year retention rate in terms of funds under management and had seen a spike in the numbers of intermediaries choosing to promote funds for the firm in 2013 following the RDR.
A spokesperson for Invesco Perpetual said sales continued to be “good”, adding it had “built a world-class investment culture in Henley-on-Thames”.
