British CEO Hargreaves Lansdown Hill resigns

October 17 (Reuters) – Hargreaves Lansdown (HRGV.L) said Monday that its chief executive Chris Hill will step down after more than five years in the role.

The British investment platform and digital wealth manager also issued a trading update two days ahead of schedule and reported assets under management of 122.7 billion pounds ($138.41 billion) as of Sept. 30, down from 123.8 billion pounds. at the end of June.

Hargreaves and other wealth managers saw their assets under management rise after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold as lockdown austerity and low interest rates boosted inflows, but are now seeing assets fall on growth concerns over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine .

Hill, 51, will be available until his successor is appointed to allow time for a handover until November 2023, Hargreaves said in a statement.

“The CEO’s departure will raise questions about whether a new chief executive could decide to cut Hargreaves Lansdown’s fees, making it return to competitiveness but with significant near-term headwinds to earnings,” JP Morgan analysts said.

Shares in the company, which have lost more than 54% since Hill took the helm, were down 4.2% by 08:39 GMT.

Hargreaves was also hit this week by a multi-million pound lawsuit as 3,200 investors filed lawsuits against the London blue-chip company over the collapse of veteran investor Neil Woodford’s flagship fund, which was available on the Hargreaves platform.

On Monday, the company reported a slowdown in net new customers and net new business in the first quarter of trading. New business fell to £700m from £1.3bn a year ago.

But total revenue rose 15% in that period thanks to higher interest rates.

Hargreaves also raised its full-year revenue margin outlook to 49-52 basis points from 44-47 basis points.

“While risk-based investment inflows remain subdued, client and asset retention rates remain strong and in line with last year,” Hill said in a statement.

Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Carolyn Cohn and Alex Richardson

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