Fund management giant Schroders said it generated record net inflows of £43.4 billion in 2019, with positive net inflows across all asset classes as the first tranches of its new major Scottish Widows mandate being transferred to the firm.

In its annual results this week, Schroders said: “We generated record net inflows of £43.4 billion in 2019 … including £32.0 billion from the Scottish Widows mandate into Solutions strategies and £12.6 billion into Schroders Personal Wealth.

“We expect the remaining assets from the Scottish Widows mandate of around £30 billion to fund through the first half of 2020.

“Excluding those net inflows which relate to the relationship with Lloyds Banking Group, and despite significant industry headwinds, we saw small net outflows of £1.2 billion.”

Schroders assets under management increased 23% to a new high of £500.2 billion.

Profit before tax and exceptional items fell 8% to £701.2 million.

Schroders CEO Peter Harrison said: “We are pleased that the structural changes we have made in our business have delivered a resilient performance with record net new business of £43.4 billion during the year.

“As a committed active asset manager, our assets under management exceeded half a trillion pounds for the first time.

“Over the last few years we have been re-positioning our business behind a clear vision to move closer to our end clients through Wealth Management, expand our capabilities in Private Assets and grow our Solutions business.

“Today, these business areas represent over half of our clients’ assets under management.

“The year saw three notable events: the successful launch of Schroders Personal Wealth (our joint venture with Lloyds Banking Group), the start of the transfer of the Scottish Widows mandate to Schroders and the establishment of a market-leading position in impact investing and micro-finance through our acquisition of BlueOrchard.

“We will maintain a focus on active, responsible investing to create better outcomes for our clients.

“We will continue to invest for the long-term growth of the business and are confident that our diversified model and differentiated strategy will generate value for our clients and shareholders.

“In the near term, Covid-19 is creating considerable uncertainty for economies and markets.

“We believe that our business resilience is sufficient to deal with this, but the impact on economies and markets will be highly correlated with how effective containment measures are.”