Doug Goodwille from Kayne Anderson speaks to Drew Meredith from The Inside Network on market thinkers.
While a surging gold price is on hold as the world adjusts to a Trump presidency, all the factors that saw its price rise more than 50 per during his first term in office – trade disputes, fiscal deficits and geopolitical tensions – are almost certainly guaranteed the second time around.
Hub 24 collecting $1 billion per month
HUB24 (ASX:HUB) – Shares in the leading wealth management platform are rising on the back of record second-quarter net inflows of $3.6 billion. This includes $349 million moved to the new Rhythm Super product, a private-label wealth management platform owned by Insignia (ASX: IFL), the former IOOF. The strong quarter means the group is now running at about $1 billion per month in inflows, after signing-up another 28 financial planning practices during the quarter.
As BT’s Panorama business readies for a sale, the likes of Hub 24 and Netwealth Group (ASX: NWL) are doing everything they can to assert their dominance. With a series of recent purchases looking like ancillary businesses, they are effectively seeking to become the dominant data provider and support system for the large cohort of independent advisory firms.
The news comes as Dixon Advisory (a subsidiary of E&P [ASX: EP1], formerly known as Evans Dixon) fell into administration after legal claims and complaints became too large for the firm to deal with fairly.
Back at Hub 24, total funds under administration (FUA) as at 31 December 2021 was reported to have increased to $68.3 billion, while platform FUA was confirmed to be $50 billion (up 128 per cent on the December 2020 half). These inflows have clearly come at the expense of BT, Colonial First State and AMP, as their respective financial advisory distribution networks dissolved.
This is the third straight quarter of record net inflows for HUB, supported by an additional 181 new advisers that have joined. Portfolio, administration and reporting services (PARS) was also up to $18.3 billion.
HUB said it had “delivered consistent growth with this result following three consecutive record quarters for net inflows and record FY21 net inflows. Our market leadership position and focus on delivering innovative solutions to support the needs of our customers continues to resonate with advisers and their clients. This quarter, 28 new distribution agreements were signed, including new agreements with self-licensed advisers and practices that are part of advice aggregators.”
HUB remains in second spot, ranking only behind competitor Netwealth on annual inflows, having increased its market share from 4.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent over the quarter.
The announcement follows updates to its acquisition deal with Class (ASX: CL1) that was announced in October. HUB has increased its cash component from 10 cents to 12.5 cents for every Class share. Class shareholders have been issued with the scheme booklet and are now scheduled to vote on the proposal on 31 January 2022. Class Super is a leading technology and data provider to the accounting sector but specifically to SMSFs. The platform is rumoured to have some of the strongest investment data and tracking systems in the market, hence its value to Hub 24 (or any other platform) is clearly evident.
