According to parent company Prudential’s first quarter statement, M&G recorded net retail inflows of £2.4bn, up from £1.7bn in the last three months of 2012, helping boost its assets under management to £238.4bn.
However, Prudential said this was boosted by record inflows of £2.9bn from European investors, offsetting outflows from the UK side of the business. The company said M&G had experienced £4.8bn in redemptions on the retail side of the business, but this was offset by £7.2bn of inflows.
“A significant portion of these UK outflows result from our decision in summer 2012 to slow contributions into two of our market-leading corporate bond funds,” the company said.
In July last year M&G announced it was exploring options to reduce inflows into the two corporate bond funds run by Mr Woolnough. The manager is responsible for roughly £25bn in fixed income assets including the £13.4bn M&G Optimal Income fund.
Although it has yet to publicly announce specific measures such as soft-closing the funds, M&G has been contacting larger clients in an effort to slow inflows. Two months after July’s statement the funds were cut from Hargreaves Lansdown’s Wealth 150 list of recommended funds.
