By early January 2004 New Star Investment Funds' retail sales since its launch in July 2001 had reached more than £1.5 billion, consolidating the company's position as the UK's fastest growing retail fund manager. As a result of organic growth and acquisitions, the company entered 2004 as one of the UK's top 20 retail fund management groups and its largest independent one, with a product range covering UK and international equities, fixed income, specialist sectors such as financials, investment trusts, property, technology and funds of funds.
In March, New Star's institutional business, New Star Institutional Managers, announced that it had been appointed by the State of Florida to manage approximately $470 million of funds on its behalf. The Florida appointment, which covers a mandate to invest in Europe, Australasia and the Far East, was one of a series of significant new institutional mandates and took New Star Institutional Managers' funds to approximately £3 billion.
The following month, New Star unveiled its private client offering, comprising actively managed bespoke portfolios of "best of breed" funds spread across a wide range of asset classes. The service embraces four key principles: a focus on absolute return, access to the best fund managers on an "open architecture" basis, a proper respect for risk and excellence in reporting.
In May, a special promotion was launched for the New Star Property Unit Trust, one of the very few unit trusts offering private investors access to the UK commercial property sector. Investors were offered 1% discount to buy units in the fund, which aims to provide a relatively high income with the potential for long-term capital growth. For sophisticated private investors and institutions, New Star launched the New Star Managed Hedge Fund, an actively-managed fund of New Star's hedge funds.
New Star's annual results for 2003 were also announced in May. These showed the company moving from a £9.2 million operating loss to a £10.6m operating profit before interest, exceptional items and amortisation of intangibles on sales up 124% to £45.9 million. During the year funds under management grew from £1.9 billion to £5.9 billion as a result of organic growth and three synergistic acquisitions costing £133.7 million in total.
In June, New Star Investment Funds' gross retail sales since its launch in July 2001 reached £2 billion. Also in June, Ian Lewis was appointed as head of UK institutional sales and marketing, joining from UBS Global Asset Management.