Schroders reported a slight improvement in its net income in its full-year results on Thursday, to £2.18bn, from £2.12bn in the prior year, as its operating expenses rose to £1.48bn from £1.42bn a year earlier.
The FTSE 100 company said that as a result, its profit before tax and exceptional items for the year ended 31 December was £702.3m, up from £701.2m in 2019, while its basic earnings per share slipped to 172.4p from 178.9p.
Its total dividend for the year was in line with the prior period’s distribution, at 114p per share.
Schroders said its diversified business model enabled it to deliver a “strong” financial performance for the year amid a challenging environment, with 75% of its assets outperforming over one year, 72% over three years and 81% over five years.
The company generated net flows of £42.5bn while assets under management increased 15%, up from £500.2bn in 2019 to a record high of £574.4bn.
It rebalanced the group towards private assets and alternatives, wealth management, solutions and the United States during the year, and the board said the firm’s partnerships, primarily in Asia, generated a further £12.4bn of net inflows which increased the total net flows to £54.9bn.
Assets under management including partnerships reached £663bn.
“The strength of our investment performance showcases the benefits of active investment management and our ability to deliver good outcomes for our clients,” said group chief executive officer Peter Harrison.
“Our geographic diversification continued with our US business reaching a milestone of more than $100bn of assets under management.
“We also continued to expand in Asia through our growing network of partnerships which contributed strongly to the group in 2020.”
Harrison also highlighted that Schroders now incorporated environmental, social and governance factors into decision-making across its investment range.
“This fulfils a commitment we made in 2019; de-carbonisation is a critical issue.
“We are confident that our diversified business model will continue to generate value for all our stakeholders.”
At 0906 GMT, shares in Schroders were down 2.09% at 3,517p.
