Hargreaves Lansdown PLC on Friday said the deadline for a takeover offer has been extended, as the company reported strong client growth and new business in the most recent quarter.
The Bristol, England-based investment platform operator said that, in the fourth quarter that ended on June 30, closing assets under administration reached a record figure, rising 16% to £155.3 billion from £134.0 billion the same time last year.
Hargreaves also said the deadline for a private equity consortium to make an offer for Hargreaves was extended to August 5 from July 19.
In June, the consortium, led by CVC Capital Partners, issued a revised proposal to acquire Hargreaves for 1,140 pence per share, of which 30p comprises the final dividend for 2024. Hargreaves previously rejected a 985p per share offer on the grounds that it ‘substantially undervalued’ the company.
Hargreaves shares were marginally lower 1,107.67 pence each in London on Friday afternoon.
In total, £1.6 billion net new business was secured in the quarter compared with £1.7 billion previously.
Within this, £900 million of new business was generated by the Hargreaves Lansdown Platform, with the remaining £700 million attributed to Active Savings.
Net new clients increased 85% to 24,000 from 13,000, bringing the number of total active clients to approximately 1.9 million from 1.8 million the previous year.
Client retention reduced to 91% from 92%, meanwhile asset retention fell to 88% from 90%.
Share dealing volumes per month increased to 838,000 in the quarter, up 22% from 685,000 year-on-year.
Chief Executive Officer Dan Olley said: ‘While we still have more to do to deliver against our strategic priorities, we are making progress and I’m pleased to see ongoing good momentum this quarter,
‘We operate in a large and growing market, and our purpose, to make it easy to save and invest for a better future has never been more relevant, so we welcome the new government’s early focus on growth and encouraging more people to engage with their finances.’
Closing assets under administration were concentrated in Funds at 46%, with Shares following at 40%. Cash came third, accounting for 8.0% of total assets.
Last year’s distribution across Funds, Shares, and Cash was 46%, 38%, and 9.8% respectively.
Looking ahead, Olley said the company will focus on improving client service and experience to ensure they have access to the products they want.
‘Our recently launched range of Managed and Multi-Index Funds proved popular exceeding our targets for launch, and generated £0.4 billion of the £0.5 billion growth in our HL Funds range across the quarter,’ said Olley.
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