Q4 2018 AUA update

28 January 2019

Nucleus Financial Group PLC

("Nucleus" or the "Company")

Q4 2018 AUA update

and

Notice of full year results

Nucleus Financial Group PLC (AIM: NUC), a leading independent wrap platform provider, today publishes an update on its assets under administration (AUA) in respect of the 12-month period to 31 December 2018.

The Company continues to grow AUA, which stood at £13.9bn as at 31 December 2018, up 2.3% over the year against a challenging market backdrop which saw the FTSE All Share Index decrease by 13% and the FTSE 100 Index decrease by 12.5% during the same period. Advisers actively using the platform increased by 6% to 1,396 over the year while customer numbers grew by 7% to 93,175. Net inflows for the period were impacted by continued investor caution.

AUA for the fourth quarter of 2018 fell by 5.5% reflecting a fall in markets overall, with the FTSE All Share Index down 11% and the FTSE 100 Index down by 10.4% in the quarter. AUA has since recovered, in line with market movements, to £14.2bn as at 24 January 2019.

Highlights

- AUA increased to £13.9bn at the end of the period, up 2.3% over 2018;

- Advisers actively using the platform increased by 6% to 1,396 over the year (end 2017: 1,317);

- Customer numbers rose to 93,715, an increase of 7% over the period (end 2017: 87,556).

AUA and inflows

David Ferguson, Nucleus' founder and CEO, commented:

"Nucleus has grown strongly in recent years and, despite the challenging market backdrop, I am pleased to report our 12th successive year of growth in AUA, adviser users and customer numbers. Having listed the business in Q3 2018 and reorganised our major outsourcing relationships in Q4 2018, we are now focused on accelerating our growth within the sector."

Notice of results

The results for the year ending 31 December 2018 will be announced on Tuesday 2 April 2019.

Historical flows and AUA data by quarter

~ Ends ~

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 1,390 active adviser users and works with more than 800 financial adviser firms as at 31 December 2018. It is responsible for assets under administration ("AUA") of £13.9bn on behalf of more than 93,000 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 won CoreData's 'Best medium sized platform' for 2018 (and the last seven years), the Schroders 'Platform of the Year' award for 2018 (and the last three years) and recently won 'Best Platform' and 'Platform Innovation' at the 2018 Money Marketing Awards.