Q2 2021 AUA update

16 July 2021

Nucleus Financial Group plc

('Nucleus' or the 'Company')

Q2 2021 AUA update

Assets under administration increase 19% year-on-year to approach £19bn

Nucleus (AIM: NUC), a leading independent wrap platform provider, today publishes an update on its assets under administration (AUA) in respect of the three months to 30 June 2021.

The Company continues to grow AUA, which rose to £18.9bn as of 30 June 2021, up 19.2% year-on-year and 5.1% on the previous quarter. By comparison, the FTSE All-Share Index increased 17.7% year-on-year and by 4.8% on the last quarter.

Q2 highlights

- Gross inflows of £578m were achieved in Q2 2021, a 50.5% increase on Q2 2020.

- Net inflows were £193m up 17.0% against Q2 2020.

- Advisers actively using the platform increased by 0.5% in Q2 2021 compared to the previous quarter and by 2.6% year-on-year.

- Customer numbers increased by 1.0% in Q2 2021 compared to the previous quarter and by 2.9% year-on-year.

- Investment in the platform proposition continued throughout Q2 with the introduction of next day payments ensuring faster withdrawals and income payments for clients; new adviser access to our client portal, Nucleus Go through 'Adviser View'; and the introduction of near real-time platform reports ensuring data reported from the platform is as up to date as it possibly can be, only minutes behind core platform transactions.

- Following the acquisition of the relevant assets of OpenWealth in December, a new Glasgow office was opened in May for our new Nucleus colleagues.

- The James Hay takeover offer received shareholder acceptances in excess of 94% and was declared unconditional as to acceptances. The change in control application is currently pending approval from the FCA.

AUA and inflows

David Ferguson, Nucleus' founder and CEO, commented:

"The first quarter of 2021 was incredibly strong for new business activity, and it was pleasing to see inflow momentum continue throughout Q2 and to reach £19bn of AUA following the quarter end. It was a particularly resilient performance given the ongoing uncertainty of the takeover process and reflects the ongoing achievements and fortitude of our people along with our commitment to continually improving the core platform proposition for our users."

Historical flows and AUA data by quarter

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For further information please contact:

Nucleus

David Ferguson, CEO Tel: +44 (0)13 1226 9800

Stuart Geard, Chief Financial Officer

Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Hugh Morgan Tel: +44 (0)20 7408 4090

Edward Mansfield

Daniel Bush 

Camarco (Media enquiries)

Jennifer Renwick Tel: +44 (0)20 3757 4994

Jake Thomas  

Notes to Editors

About Nucleus

Nucleus is a wrap platform founded in 2006 by advisers committed to altering the balance of power in the industry by putting the customer centre stage. It provides independent wrap platform services to over 1,450 active adviser users and works with more than 850 financial adviser firms as of 30 June 2021. It is responsible for AUA of £18.9bn on behalf of more than 102,000 customers.

The multi award-winning platform offers a range of custody, trading, payment, reporting, fee-handling, research and integration services across a variety of tax wrappers and more than 6,500 asset choices including cash, OEICs, unit trusts, offshore funds, structured products and listed securities, including ETFs and investment trusts. The platform currently facilitates over 1.1 million customer account transactions on average per month.

Nucleus has been awarded CoreData's 'Best medium sized platform' for 2020 (and the last nine years). It has also been awarded a 5-star service rating at the 2020 and 2019 Financial Adviser Awards, the Schroders 'Platform of the Year' award for 2016, 2017 and 2018 and won 'Best Platform' and 'Platform Innovation' at the 2018 Money Marketing Awards.