M&G Investments enjoyed the best sales in the UK in the three months to 31 March, a period when the country’s fund managers recovered after a difficult finale of 2011, new research shows.

According to a report by the research firm Fundscape, M&G recorded its best gross sales on record with over £3 billion ($4.8 billion), ahead of BlackRock and Invesco Perpetual with £1.9 billion and £1.7 billion, respectively. M&G also topped the net sales table with £1.4 billion, trailed by Standard Life at £483.5 million and Threadneedle at £471.1 million.

"In summary, it was a reasonable start to 2012, but with stock markets becoming more volatile again and the ISA season ending in Q2, maintaining this positive trend will be difficult,” said Helen Pridham, director of Fundscape. “The rest of the year is likely to disappoint, although with RDR (the Retail Distribution Review) coming up, multi-asset managers may buck the trend.”

Good news for platforms

In a separate report, Fundscape found that platform activity recovered in line with fund managers and rising stock markets in the opening three months of the year. Platform assets under administration grew by 9 per cent to £189 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

Fundscape singled out Ascentric and Axa Elevate which saw assets break the £4 billion mark after rising 13.2 per cent and 15.2 per cent, respectively.

Gross platform sales were up by a quarter to £11.9 billion compared to the previous quarter and 8.2 per cent relative to the first quarter of 2011. Cofunds logged more net sales than anyone else, but runner-up Fidelity had the biggest surge in sales with a 66 per cent increase in gross sales and a staggering 223 per cent in net sales on the previous quarter.

The report included 15 platforms, most of the biggest one in the UK except for James Hay.