Hargreaves Lansdown plc Delivered net new business of £2.9 billion and welcomed another 53,000 net new clients

Hargreaves Lansdown plc (LON:HL) today published a trading update in respect of the four month period to 30 April 2019 (“the period”).

Highlights

· Net new business of £2.9 billion in the period

· Year to date net new business of £5.4 billion

· Assets under administration (“AUA”) of £97.8 billion as at 30 April 2019

· 1,188,000 active clients, with net new clients of 53,000 in the period

· Year-to-date total net revenue of £395.9 million, up 8%

Chris Hill, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“We are pleased with the strong tax year end, delivering net new business of £2.9 billion and welcoming another 53,000 net new clients despite the market backdrop. It is also pleasing to see the benefit of our investment coming through with Active Savings continuing to gather momentum and the announced transfers of clients and assets from Witan Investment Services, JP Morgan and Baillie Gifford.

Whilst political and macro-economic uncertainty remains, we are confident that our continued focus on the needs of UK investors and savers means that we are well positioned to deliver attractive growth.”

Assets under administration and net new business

Net new business was £2.9 billion during the period (2018: £3.3bn), taking year to date net inflows to £5.4 billion (2018: £6.6bn). The period started slowly but built momentum, particularly across the tax year-end. New business was driven by organic new clients, ongoing wealth consolidation onto our platform from existing clients, flows into our cash management service “Active Savings” (£399m) and a direct back book transfer from Witan Investment Services (£267m). In addition, the rebranded Wealth 50 list of funds, the HL Select Global Growth fund launch and the introduction of an “Easy Access” account in Active Savings have all helped to attract new clients and inflows.

Rising stock markets have led to a positive market movement of £9.0bn, which combined with net new business has driven AUA to a record £97.8 billion as at 30 April 2019.

Transfers from Witan Investment Services are expected to complete before our year-end and while we will start the transfer process of clients from J.P. Morgan and Baillie Gifford, most of the clients and their respective assets are expected to arrive in the early months of the next financial year. We look forward to welcoming these new clients and delivering them an exceptional client experience. Year to date we have added 97,000 net new clients, taking total active client numbers to 1,188,000.

Net revenues

Net revenue for the period was £159.5 million (2018: £150.6m), benefitting from a greater level of AUA and a higher cash revenue margin, which have more than offset a fall in stock broking revenues driven by reduced dealing volumes as a consequence of low investor confidence and lower charges on overseas dealing. This has resulted in year to date net revenue of £395.9 million (2018: £366.6m), 8% higher than last year.