Cofunds leading with consolidation success

Fund supermarket Cofunds is leading the platform pack in terms of total fund sales in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a confidential report seen by Money Marketing.

The report shows that Cofunds, which recently saw chief executive Clive Boothman leave the group, achieved total sales of £118.7m in the fourth quarter of last year, £15m more than closest rival Skandia, which had sales of £103.6m.

Third was Fidelity&#39s FundsNetwork with sales of £95.2m while Hargreaves Lansdown&#39s Vantage supermarket came fourth with £87.7m.

Cofunds appears to have come top on the strength of healthy consolidation business as Skandia sold more Isas at £42.92m compared with Cofunds&#39 £40.91m. FundsNetwork sold £37.54m of Isas while HL Vantage sold £23.77m in Isa business.

Cofunds was top on Pep business with £40.55m comp-ared with HL Vantage with £34.9m, FundsNetwork with £29.73m and Skandia with £27.02m.

Cofunds sales & marketing director Rodney Aldridge says: “Information available to us shows we feel we are winning in terms of consolidation. New business is relatively subdued at the moment and IFAs clearly feel comfortable with consolidating their clients&#39 investments with us.”

Skandia head of investment sales Angus Duncan says: “While it is interesting to be told comparative sales figures, they do not really explain what is happening in the multi-manager arena. Skandia is not just about Pep and Isas, it is also a life and pensions and offshore platform.”

Hargreaves Lansdown investment manager Ben Yearsley says: “It is not surprising to see us doing well with Pep business as we have been telling investors to consolidate. But we are only marketing to clients when the others are marketing to the whole IFA sector.”