Old Mutual Wealth’s asset management division weathered the uncertainty ahead of the UK’s EU referendum and the market turbulence after the vote to record a 60% rise in first-half inflows, even though profits slipped by almost a fifth.

Old Mutual Global Investors, whose chief executive Richard Buxton was a firm believer that Brexit would not happen, saw its assets rise by £2.3 billion to £27 billion over the first six months of 2016. It was buoyed by £1.6 billion in net inflows that were 60% higher than inflows a year earlier, the asset manager's parent Old Mutual said in its interim results published on August 11.