InvestmentsSep 10 2019

Nucleus: 'We are nowhere near where we want to be'

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Nucleus: 'We are nowhere near where we want to be'

Nucleus co-founder and chief executive David Ferguson said he expects the considerable investment his firm has made in technology to help win new business in the years ahead. 

Nucleus' half year results for the six months to June 30, out this morning (September 10), showed the platform had assets under administration of £15.3bn, a 7 per cent increase on the same six month period last year. 

The number of advisers on the platform was 1,383, up from 1,357, while the number of customers rose to 95,657. 

During the half year Nucleus launched a Junior Isa product which helped bring in more assets from existing customers.

The platform also revamped its client portal Nucleus Go, which he said made the processes carried out by advisers day to day more efficient, and would help win new customers. 

Mr Ferguson said: “Substantial investment in the core platform has delivered improved efficiency, new functionality and new capabilities.

"We intend to continue developing our proposition to meet the needs of advisers and customers and expect this to give the platform an even wider market appeal over time.”

Mr Ferguson added: “We are nowhere near where we want to be in terms of building scale on the platform, and the investment we have made will continue.

"There are a range of things we are spending money on, from better technology to Mifid 2 reporting functionality and regulations, I guess the mix of how much we invest in each of those will change in the years ahead, but we can scale substantially from here.” 

He said Nucleus was less exposed to winning new business from defined benefit pension transfers than some of its rivals.

He said: “Some firms were adding functions to encourage advisers to do more DB transfers, and the regulator has been looking at that.

"I think pension freedoms will continue to benefit the industry as a whole but defined benefit transfer volumes will decline, they slowed down a year or so ago, and we haven’t been that exposed to it.”

Nucleus made a profit of £3.4m in the six month period, an increase of £1.2m on the same period last year.

The company has a policy of paying out 60 to 70 per cent of profit as a dividend and expects this to continue in the years ahead. 

david.thorpe@ft.com