Edinburgh funds platform Nucleus Financial Group — which has agreed to a £145 million takeover by investment firm James Hay — said on Tuesday its assets under administration (AUA) rose to £18 billion at March 31 as first-quarter gross inflows of £637 million were achieved, with March 2021 its “best ever month for inflows.”

The company said its assets were up 28.4% year-on-year and 3.1% on the previous quarter.

The £637 million gross inflows represented a 29.5% increase on the previous quarter and a 9.8% increase on Q1 2020.

Net inflows were £301 million, up 44.7% against the prior quarter and up 12.3% on Q1 2020.

Nucleus founder and CEO David Ferguson said: “The first quarter has been incredibly strong for new business activity, reflecting the continued achievements of our people and validating our decision to maintain our investment programme through 2020.

“Q1 net inflows were substantially up on Q4 (and on the prior year) and, at over £300m for the first time in a single month, March was by far our best-ever month for inflows, a trend we’d hope to see continue as lockdown eases.

“User satisfaction continues to improve following the successful acquisition and integration of our new colleagues from OpenWealth.

“We are pleased with our Q1 performance.

“Profit for the year to date is ahead of the board’s expectations as a result of higher AUA and lower costs and we believe the business is well-positioned to accelerate inflow momentum and to expand our operating margin through the rest of this year and beyond.”