Liontrust’s rebuilding efforts rewarded

Liontrust Asset Management, the funds firm trying to recover after the financial crisis dented its assets, said it was well positioned to grow after months of rebranding and marketing efforts.

Chief executive John Ions said the group, which fell to a full-year loss after restructuring costs, was starting to regain the confidence of wealth managers and win new clients.

He is now looking at possible acquisitions and expanding Liontrust’s fund range outside of its core British and European and equity focus.

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“We’ve left in place a foundation that can support assets of probably £5bn without too much significant cost being taken on,” Mr Ions said.

“The other opportunities are obviously acquisitive. If you look in the sub-10 billion (pounds under management) part of the market place, there’s an awful lot of opportunities,” he said.

Liontrust is trying to rebuild after bleeding the bulk of its assets following the resignation of star managers Jeremy Lang and William Pattison in early 2009, who ran most of the money it managed.

The company said in a previous trading update it had pulled in £81m of new money in the year to March-end, helped by strong performance in its funds.

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“Clearly the medicine that has been administered to themselves has brought its effects,” Iain Staples, analyst at Altium, said.

After 14 months of cost-cutting, Mr Staples expects Liontrust to return to profit in 2012, a year earlier than previously expected. It swung to a pre-tax loss of £1.7m for the year through March.