By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) - UK investment platform company Hargreaves Lansdown (L:HRGV) said it oversaw a record 47 billion pounds in assets in the September quarter as new clients joined even as stock markets slid.
A near 1 billion pounds rise in net new money drove the move higher as the number of active clients using its fund-picking services rose by 10,000 to 662,000, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
The firm's ability to hang on to existing clients and their cash also helped underpin the performance, it added, with asset and client retention ratios at 92.6 percent and 92.3 percent, respectively.
That in turn helped revenues rise to 70.8 million pounds, against 70.1 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
Hargreaves said the quarterly growth came despite a weakening in broad market sentiment as a result of geopolitical risk and weak economic data.
"The groups' results for the first quarter of the year must be considered in light of the prevailing conditions for investment," said Chief Executive Ian Gorham in the statement, citing a fall of almost 2 percent in the FTSE All Share index (FTAS) during the period.
"Potential stock market gains are a key incentive for retail investors to act and have not been present this quarter, as markets have reflected uncertainty regarding the Scottish referendum, concern over Middle East and Ukrainian conflicts and unfavourable Eurozone economic data," he added.
The company added that it planned to launch new cash-related services for clients but that these could be developed without any current need for a banking licence.
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Nishant Kumar)