Nucleus pays first dividend in major new milestone

Nucleus, the Edinburgh-based adviser built wrap platform, has paid its first dividend to shareholders following another successful year of profitable growth which saw assets under administration (AUA) hit £11.4 billion and the business deliver a 21 per cent increase in profits and a 15 per cent uplift in turnover.

Paid on 18 August, the £4.3 million dividend equates to a payment of £2.43 per ordinary share and has been distributed to the business’ ordinary shareholders.

The Thistle Street company’s first dividend reflects a yield of 4.8 per cent and is a mix of an ordinary profit based dividend and a one-off distribution of historic surplus reserves. Nucleus becomes only the second adviser wrap platform to have paid a dividend to shareholders.

Launched in 2006, Nucleus has been debt free for the past five years and through careful cost management combined with strong profitable growth has seen cash reserves build to over £15 million.

Prior to the dividend being paid, the company held more in cash reserves than has been invested in creating, launching and developing the core platform. This includes successfully re-platforming onto next generation software in 2014.

The move follows an announcement in June that it was to substantially reduce charges for clients with portfolios in excess of £500,000 from 1 July 2017.

The momentum generated has been carried into 2017 with half year results showing gross inflows up by 44.8 per cent to £1.3 billion and AUA up by 28.0 per cent to £12.8 billion, resulting in an increase in revenue of 26.5 per cent to £19.5 million.

David Ferguson, founder and CEO of Nucleus, said: “This is another major milestone for Nucleus and one I am hugely proud of. Not only is it testament to the strength of the underlying fundamentals of the business, but also the passion, dedication and hard work of every single person who has been involved over the past eleven years.

“Following five consecutive years of increasing revenues and profitability that has seen the business become debt free with over £15m in cash reserves, Nucleus is better positioned than ever before to take advantage of the significant growth opportunities in the platform sector. We believe we are poised to accelerate this progress even further by remaining fully committed to investing in next generation technology and enhancing a platform proposition that has been designed hand in hand with advisers, to the benefit of them and their clients.”