Q4 2019 AUA update

31 January 2020

Nucleus Financial Group plc

('Nucleus' or the 'Company')

Q4 2019 AUA update

Notice of full year results

Assets under administration increase 16.3% year-on-year to £16.1bn

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 31 December 2019.

The Company continues to grow AUA, which stood at £16.1bn as at 31 December 2019, up 2.8% over the previous quarter and 16.3% year-on-year. By comparison, the FTSE All-Share Index increased 3.3% on the last quarter and 14.2% year-on-year.

Highlights

- AUA increased to £16.1bn, up 16.3% year-on-year and an increase of 2.8% on the previous quarter

- Gross inflows increased for the fourth consecutive quarter, to £497m, a 7.6% increase on the fourth quarter of 2018

- Net inflows showed a marked improvement on the previous quarter, increasing 37.8% to £153m (Q3 2019: £111m)

- Advisers actively using the platform increased 3.8% on the last quarter and 3.3% on Q4 2018, to 1,442

- Customer numbers increased 1.6% on the last quarter and 3.4% on Q4 2018, to 96,857

- Continued investment in platform development delivered significant new trading functionality and improved bulk switching capability, and the Company completed successful live testing of new telephony infrastructure

- Awarded a 5-star service rating at the annual Financial Adviser Service Awards in November 2019

AUA and inflows

David Ferguson, Nucleus' founder and CEO, commented:

"We're really pleased with the 16.3% increase in AUA over the last twelve months and, in particular, to post a fourth successive quarter of gross inflow growth, especially against the backdrop of investor uncertainty during most of 2019. It was especially pleasing to see net inflows improve in the last quarter - these had held steady across Q2 and Q3 but increased by 37.8% in Q4. While still early days, this positive momentum has continued into the new year and we feel well-positioned to build on this."

"Q4 saw further significant investment in the business with new functionality that allows the placing of multiple trade instructions at the same time, a process our users tell us will save considerable processing time. Further enhancements included improved bulk switching capability, enabling more efficient adviser performance, and the successful live testing of new telephony infrastructure. Each of these enhancements has resulted in improved service delivery, engagement with users and resilience, and this was underscored with the award of a 5-star service rating at the Financial Adviser Service Awards in November."

Notice of results

The results for the year ending 31 December 2019 will be announced on Tuesday 24 March 2020.

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 1,442 active adviser users and works with more than 880 financial adviser firms as at 31 December 2019. It is responsible for AUA of £16.1bn on behalf of more than 96,000 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 a 5-star service rating at the 2019 Financial Adviser Awards and won CoreData's 'Best medium sized platform' for 2019 (and the last eight years), 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.