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IGM Financial Inc.’s first-quarter profits rose 8.5% from a year ago on strong net inflows, the firm said Thursday in an earnings release.

IGM reported net earnings available to common shareholders were $219.3 million for the quarter ending March 31, up from $202.2 million in the same period in 2021.

“These results were driven by record high net inflows and record high first quarter level of assets under management and advisement,” IGM Financial CEO James O’Sullivan said in a release.

IGM’s assets under management and advisement totalled $268.3 billion, up 8% from a year ago but down 3.2% from the prior quarter.

The firm also reported net inflows of $2.5 billion, up from $2.3 billion in Q1 last year.

IGM’s wealth management division, which includes IG Wealth Management and Investment Planning Counsel, reported net earnings of $121.4 million for the quarter, a 5.7% year-over-year increase.

IG Wealth Management’s net client inflows were $1.5 billion, an increase of $451 million from a year ago.

Wealth management assets under advisement were $148 billion, an increase of 8.1% from March 31, 2021 but down 3% from three months ago.

AUM was also down quarter over quarter at IGM’s asset management division. Mackenzie Investments reported AUM of $205.5 billion as of March 31, down 2.3% from Dec. 31. Year-over-year AUM was up 7.3%.

Mackenzie’s investment fund net sales of $1.3 billion were down 31.6% from $1.9 billion a year ago but still made for the second-highest first quarter result in the firm’s history, the release said.

Mackenzie’s net earnings of $52.1 million were up 8.5% compared to the first quarter of 2021.

Mutual fund gross sales of $2.9 billion were down from $4 billion a year ago. ETF net creations totalled $718 million.

ETF assets under management totalled $12.9 billion on March 31, up from $9.5 billion a year earlier. Excluding investment in ETFs by IGM mutual funds, ETF assets under management were $5.8 billion compared to $4.2 billion on March 31, 2021.