Good morning, and welcome to the Aberdeen first half results for 2022. I'm joined by Stephanie Bruce, our CFO, Richard Wilson, CEO of the personal wealth vector, Noel Butwell, CEO of the advisor vector, and Chris Demetriou and René Buehlmann, CEOs of the investments vector.
Firstly, I will cover our performance as a group and show you how the strategy of diversification and investing our capital in growth areas is beginning to benefit the group results. Secondly, Stephanie will go through the detailed financial performance, and then I will look at the impact of the market environment on the timing of the delivery of our strategy, our capital stance on dividend returns, and how we see the near-term outlook before opening to questions.
In the first half, revenue was 8% lower, adjusted operating profit 28% lower, and cost-income ratio increased by 4%, all compared to the first half of last year. Net flows overall recorded a creditable performance in this market, with net outflows at 1% of opening AUM. At the half year, assets under management, including liquidity and Lloyds, were 6% lower than the start of the year.
The group results have been reduced principally by the market impact on revenues within the investments vector, where profits were 40% lower, while the advisor and personal vectors were up 3% and 75% respectively. The latter bolstered by one month's contribution from interactive investor. I'm pleased to report that ii is performing ahead of our expectations when we signed the deal last year.
We deliberately structured the group into three vectors, two of which have grown, even in the most challenging of markets. When I joined what is now Aberdeen in late 2020, I said that we would pursue a strategy of refocusing our investments vector to areas of strength and growth potential, and that we would expand our reach in the higher growth and higher margin U.K. savings and wealth market.
Despite the challenging market context, we are doing exactly that. While a worsening market environment inevitably means that it will take longer to deliver our stated financial targets, we have the right strategy and we have the team, the right capabilities, and the capital resources to execute it well. We have now successfully addressed the significant gap that we had in our business model by acquiring II, which has transformed our position in the U.K. savings and wealth market.
Our balance sheet remains strong, even after significant returns to shareholders and has significantly strengthened our stated dividend commitments. As we now have greater clarity on the capital needs of the business, we will continue to allocate capital to deliver shareholder returns. Returning capital in excess of business needs as further stake sales that will accrue from management actions are greatest.
The pro-cyclical nature of asset management means that it has been most impacted by the fall in markets, and this illustrates precisely why our strategy of diversification for Aberdeen performance in interactive investor and the plans that we have for the future growth of the personal sector. Turning to the investments sector, this is the business with the greatest foundations in people and process. However, it has been hampered by having to deal with legacy issues and a lack of modernization.
The rebuilding program is already underway, and we will show you the progress to- date as well as outlining in detail our approach to addressing an unacceptable cost-income ratio. Financial results show lower revenue and 40% lower operating profit and an increase in cost-income ratio to 86%.
As the business continues to build out from its legacy position in traditional core equity and multi-asset strategies, it is no surprise that we have seen the majority of AUM declines in those areas. Pleasingly, areas of more recent strategic focus that generate longer-term revenue streams and attractive revenue margins, such as real assets and other alternatives, have delivered AUM growth in the first half, despite the challenging environment.
We are progressing well with reshaping our equity franchise to focus on Asia, sustainability, and thematic capabilities. Our multi-asset capabilities provide the crucial foundations for the delivery of repositioning of real assets.
This gave us exposure to the warehouse and logistics distribution sector. Since its acquisition, AUM has grown by 33%. Tritax works closely with our established Aberdeen Real Assets team and, as an illustration of how we're working together, has contributed to the win to lead in capital raising for the Britishvolt Power and Electrification project.
The addition of Tritax to the vector has added capability, specifically in the logistics ecosystem and green energy area, and the collaborative approach to delivering growth, scale, and client access. I draw specific attention to this acquisition because it demonstrates commitment to our strategy. The role of bolt-on acquisitions demonstrates how we can grow even in tough markets.
Of course, the prime driver of flows in the long term is investment performance, which is best viewed relatively. Over one year, our performance shows 53% of AUM ahead of benchmark, three years 63%, and five-year 61%. We have seen the impact of market conditions result in mixed performance across asset classes. Performance in real assets, alternatives, and fixed income is highly competitive over the short and longer term.
Our performance in equities and multi-asset remains a critical focus and both were impacted in the period by the market derating of growth and rotation into value. We are reshaping these franchises to be considerably more focused. Our overarching goal is to achieve more consistent investment performance, and we are investing in our people, processes, and technology to make that happen.
We outlined how the investments vector strategy fitted into the group strategy in March last year. While the environment has changed dramatically across all economic indicators, we remain fully committed to delivery.
Indeed, we will step up the pace of change in this market dislocation. We are changing the shape of our investments business and repositioning ourselves in higher growth asset classes that play to existing Aberdeen strengths and global trends. Through this repositioning, we are focusing and investing in growth areas, exiting subscale businesses and driving down costs. This will position us optimally when broader global economic recovery resumes.
We see highly attractive investment opportunities aligned to the global trends, and we have the investment expertise that is necessary to capitalize on them. To be clear, you will see us progressively move away from a broad waterfront offering as we focus the business on areas where we have competitive strength and scale. There are three things that we are doing in the investments vector.
I've already talked about the focus on improving investment performance. Secondly, we're working to drive improved flows. Thirdly, we're reducing costs. We are continuing to accelerate fund development and launches in areas of growth. Increasingly, through time, we will shape new retail offerings guided by the data that flows from our market-leading adviser and personal vectors.
Right now, we are executing our programs to drive transformation and reduce the cost base of the investments vector itself. Our new products and solutions are designed to capitalize on the global growth trends. Let me highlight recent launches. Asia Sustainable, China Next Generation, follow-on funds in commercial real estate debt and core infrastructure, and easy-to-access package solutions such as MyFolio Sustainable and Global Risk Mitigation.
We are confident that these new product initiatives, combined with actions to improve investment performance in our existing capabilities, will contribute to growth as market conditions improve. We are well into an ambitious fund rationalization program that will result in the closure or merger of about 110 funds. We're simplifying our organization, resulting in lower headcount and fewer management layers.
Over the coming months, we will complete the transition to a single global middle office for public markets, unlocking cost benefits from strategic use of partners. As a result of these actions, we are committed to delivering gross cost savings of GBP 150 million by 2024, and over the same period, we will reinvest GBP 75 million in the business. Turning to Adviser.
We have the U.K.'s largest adviser platform by assets under administration, with an impressive reach of more than 50% of U.K. advice businesses partnering with us. The strength of our existing offering and the quality of service is already highly regarded with a 96% customer satisfaction score. We are building on that strength, investing to further enhance our technology capability and the adviser experience.
We've already added new portals and new ways of engaging with us, and in the second half, we will launch our next significant upgrade, overhauling the look and feel of the platform, making it much more intuitive, streamlined, and focusing on helping the advisory businesses that we serve. By ensuring that when firms partner with Aberdeen, they can deliver more for their business success, we in turn increase advocacy, growth, and retention for Aberdeen.
Our continued investment in advisor experience will further enhance our leadership position in a market that is estimated to grow AUM by 19% CAGR through 2025. In this half year, the advisor vector has performed strongly, with growth in both fee-based revenue up by 6% to GBP 92 million, and adjusted operating profit up by 3% to GBP 38 million, despite a tightening consumer environment.
The acquisition of II completed at the end of May has transformed our position in the vibrant U.K. wealth market and delivers a significant acceleration of growth revenue and diversification for the group. The transition of II into Aberdeen has been smooth, and Richard's senior leadership team ensures continuity in management and delivery of the next phase of growth.
In terms of financial results in the first half, II has performed ahead of our business case expectations in terms of revenue and profitability, of which one month is recorded in the first half. Despite the less active savings market, II has grown its customer base to 408,000, adding 19,000 customers in the half, and has maintained its industry leading assets per customer of GBP 128,000.
This has driven a 17% increase in revenue and 47% increase in adjusted operating profit on a full year 2021 run rate basis. While the cost-income ratio improved by nine percentage points to 56%, highlighting II's operating scale.
As we said at acquisition, we believe Aberdeen is the best home for II, as it brings stability and certainty for the business, and we have a clear roadmap to add significant scale going forward. Growth in II is underpinned by three drivers. Strength of the platform, compelling pricing, and scale of the customer base.
II has a fully scalable operating platform supported by cutting-edge data that drives personalized customer content and experience. This is what will enable significant future margin expansion. II's transparent flat fee subscription model is favored by customers. Over recent months, it has launched a series of offerings to further grow the existing customer base, including bundling, fixed fee pension provision, and advice.
As part of our growth strategy plan, we are folding the Aberdeen's established personal business, wealth services, digital advice, and the financial planning team under Richard, who will lead this as CEO of the entire personal wealth sector. This will enable us to offer an end-to-end customer proposition from simple online transactions to more complex financial advice.
We are developing further synergies to fully serve this integrated customer group. Taken together, growth in the advisor and personal sectors will significantly increase our exposure to the fast-growing U.K. wealth market and will transform in line with our stated strategic ambitions. Richard is with us today for any questions. I'll hand over now to Stephanie.
Good morning, and thank you, Stephen . As Stephen has highlighted, our results in this half have principally been impacted by market levels in 2022, which have reduced our fee-based revenue.
At a group level, revenue is 8% lower due to an 11% reduction from the investments vector, with advisor and personal partly mitigating this impact through revenue group sector, which has been significantly impacted by the market performance in equities in this half year, together with the impact of net outflows in equities in the last 12 months. This has resulted in an increase in the cost-income ratio in the investments vector to 86%.
While this has been disappointing, the benefits of the actions taken to diversify the business are already evident, as our vectors operating in the U.K. wealth sector are both delivering resilient revenue growth and profit contributions, even in these volatile markets with decreasing consumer confidence.
As a proportion of the group results, profits from our U.K. Platform and wealth management businesses have increased from 26% to almost 40%. Of course, we only have one month of II results included at the half year.
Now, if we had owned II for the whole of the first half, advisor and personal would have accounted for over 50% of pro forma group adjusted operating profits in the period. Given the acquisition of II, this higher contribution of adjusted operating profits from the advisor and personal vectors is a trend we now expect to continue.
The advisor team have driven increased revenue of 6% due to higher average AUA and stable yields over the period. Adjusted operating profit of GBP 38 million was 3% higher. The cost-income ratio of 59% is a small increase on prior year and reflects the current overlap of specific outsourced service as we continue to transform this business.
The consolidated results for the personal wealth include just one month's contribution from Interactive Investor, but given its scale, its impact has been to increase the wealth's revenue by 41% and adjusted operating profit by 75%. II cost-income ratio of 56% will have an immediate uplift to the efficiency of the personal wealth overall. To demonstrate the II impact for the group, just the one month profit contribution is 6% accretive to the group's EPS for the half year.
Now in the management report provided today, we have provided the key financial and operating metrics for II for the full year 2021 and half year 2022. These evidence the strong growth trajectory of the business and the resilience of its subscription-based model. Our dividend policy is unchanged, and the interim dividend is GBP 0.073.
Benefits from our actions to diversify the business are also evident in a change of mix in our assets under management. AUMA at the half year are 6% lower than at the year-end, with market movements contributing GBP 52 billion or 10% of opening AUM. The primary negative headwind in institutional wholesale was within equities. This movement was largely offset by the value of II's AUA of GBP 55 billion at acquisition.
Now within overall group net outflows of GBP 36 billion, circa 90% reflects Lloyds exits and liquidity net outflows. The Lloyds exits are now complete with the final transfer of GBP 24 billion executed in this half year period. Liquidity net outflows in the half year of almost GBP 8 billion arose as corporates drew down cash built up during COVID.
Now you will recognize that these are relatively low margin products, so the revenue impact is less significant. We have been successful in retaining around GBP 7.5 billion of Lloyds assets in a new quants mandate, which will be run in our institutional wholesale team. Excluding these Lloyds and liquidity flows, net outflows were circa GBP 4 billion, which at 1% of AUM is similar to prior year levels and reasonably encouraging given the challenging markets.
Adviser and personal continue to attract positive new business at GBP 1.7 billion, albeit at a lower level than the prior year, reflecting less consumer activity. Personal flows have also benefited from one month's contribution of flows from II. Within institutional and wholesale, our AUMA highlights increasingly different patterns of investment between the traditional asset classes of equities and fixed income compared to the real asset and alternative franchises.
Our increased focus on these latter asset classes has benefited performance in this half year. Since the start of the year, about 2/3 of the book, which is in traditional areas of equities, fixed income, and multi-asset, saw a decline in overall AUM, principally due to market impacts. In real assets and other alternatives, which represented around 1/3 of our book at the start of the year, we have increased levels of AUM even in these challenging times.
As a result, the AUM in these asset classes have now grown during this half year to represent 43% of the total book as at June and generated 2% growth in revenue. Our focus growth strategy in the investment sector is underpinned by concentration on our areas of competitive strength.
Within institutional and wholesale, real assets has grown to the second-largest asset class, driven by the investment in Tritax, which complements our established Aberdeen capability. Decline in markets-based fee revenue and performance fees accounted for the majority of the reduction in revenue in this half year.
There was a small net GBP 4 million negative impact on revenue from disposals and acquisitions versus the comparative period, the biggest of which was Parmenion. It is important to note that net outflows and yields each had less than a 1% impact on revenue.
Revenue was concentrated within equities, which remains the largest source of fee-based revenue in the investment sector at 42%. There were reductions in revenue across most other asset classes other than alternatives and real assets, which saw a GBP 7 million increase largely due to Tritax.
Now looking forward into the second half, we have revenue tailwinds from a full six-month contribution from II and certain specific fee uplifts of circa GBP 9 million. In addition, our performance fees are skewed to the second half, and we expect continued positive flows in adviser and personal wealth.
Market levels have shown some signs of improvement in July, and if this trend continues, provides a further tailwind. With a greater contribution from II, our sensitivity to market-based fee revenue will be lower. With net outflows at 1% of opening AUMA, flows activity has been relatively stable in these challenging markets.
Insurance flows continue to be lumpy, and we had minimal benefit in this first half of 2022 from levels of bulk purchase annuity activity by our insurance clients. In addition, the continued de-risking is impacting us. We expect these market conditions to drive continued volatility in the pattern of both flows and mix of business in these mandates.
Advisor flows have been resilient. As Stephen highlighted, there are a number of new products and service improvements coming in 2022 and 2023, which are aimed at growing assets on our platforms. Personal flows of GBP 0.3 billion include the flows from II of one month that we are consolidating. II's net flows for the full six months to 13th of June were GBP 2.2 billion, gaining 2% market share in the period.
Now, as I explained at the full year, we are reshaping the cost base by reducing the core structural costs required to operate our investment activities, improving efficiency, and creating the capacity to invest in our chosen growth areas. We have continued with cost actions in the first half of 2022, which of course have been undertaken in a changed environment for both inflation and interest rates.
Overall, the adjusted operating costs at half year are 2% lower than the prior comparative. The first half costs benefited about GBP 20 million from the disposals made in 2021, namely Parmenion, the Nordics real estate business, and the Hark Capital and Bonaccord businesses in the U.S. This broadly offsets the increased costs from Tritax, Finimize, and II.
Across the three vectors, excluding II, we have reduced the headcount by circa 10%, from around 5,500 at June 2021 to 5,000 at June 2022. Even with the additional costs from acquisitions, notably Tritax and II, for full year 2022, we have a clear pathway in current markets to lower overall operating costs.
We aim to deliver a similar percentage level of cost reduction for full year 2022 to that we have achieved in H1. This will be driven by cost management within the investments vector, a further reduction of headcount by about circa 10%, and continued cost control across the group. If we are to achieve our cost-income ratio target, we need to deliver growth of revenue in the investment sector, as well as reducing the cost base.
Looking forward, three factors in the investment sector are now impacting the timing of the achievement of our objective of high single-digit revenue CAGR by the end of 2023. The current significant uncertainty in global markets, the associated impact on flows, and the shift in client asset allocations to lower risk and lower margin products.
This adds priority to our continued focus on delivering the program of cost savings through the rationalization, simplification, and streamlining of activities in the sector, which we have previously reported in March.
Now on this slide, each of the five areas of activity are designed to realize substantial savings and are already well underway. A few areas that I'll highlight. We have now reviewed circa GBP 550 funds and concluded that 20% with an AUM of about GBP 7 billion are subscale, inefficient, or not are no longer aligned with our core strengths.
These will be merged or closed, resulting in simplified fund ranges across the U.K. and Luxembourg domicile funds, removing duplication and simplifying our product offering and freeing up resources. This program of work will continue through the second half of 2022 and into the first half of 2023, resulting in a product shelf aligned to our key strengths and to client demands.
Although there will be a revenue impact from actions which target both fund rationalization and disposal of non-core activities that are inefficient or subscale, once completed, the overall cost-income ratio of the group will improve as a result of these initiatives. As our clients' asset allocation profiles are changing, we continue to review the cost of servicing these complex mandates across the equity and multi-asset businesses.
We are confident that we can unlock savings in technology and information servicing costs as we change how we service such mandates. We will continue to exit non-core businesses which are no longer aligned to the overall strategy and where we do not have scale or a strong growth franchise.
Recent examples are Hark and Bonaccord and the Nordics real estate businesses. We do not expect any further such disposals to impact the revenue or cost base before 2023. We are simplifying our investments operating model to realize efficiencies. By creating a single middle office operating model, we increase capacity and delivery of client service. While our reshaping of the sector has recently unified the U.K. and European equities teams in order to streamline processes.
The full suite of actions in train is targeted to deliver net savings of GBP 75 million, with gross savings of circa GBP 150 million before reinvestment of GBP 75 million to support growth. The majority of the initiatives will impact 2023, with benefits fully realized in 2024. Additional restructuring costs associated with these actions are expected to be broadly funded by proceeds from the disposal of our non-core assets.
We continue to have a strong balance sheet even after the acquisition of ii and an uncovered dividend due to the capital actions we have taken. Movements in capital in the first half were dominated by the consideration for II, which was settled in cash from our group liquid resources. We benefited from the sale in January of part of our Phoenix stake, which raised GBP 0.3 billion.
At June, available capital is GBP 2.3 billion, comprising a regulatory capital surplus of GBP 0.6 billion and GBP 1.7 billion of additional but unrecognized capital from our value of listed stakes. We will continue to restructure and invest in the business to support organic growth across our diversified business model in order to achieve our ambitions for sustained revenue growth and a 70% cost-income ratio.
We use an internal management buffer for the regulatory surplus simply as a management tool to support a disciplined approach to capital management, with the objective of supporting both our growth ambitions and continued shareholder returns. We are conscious of disappointment in our share price and remain focused on growth of return for shareholders.
We announced our intention to return GBP 300 million to shareholders and commenced in early July a GBP 150 million share buyback program, which we estimate will take H2 to complete. As previously stated, we will continue to monetize the Indian stakes as a key element of our disciplined approach to capital management.
As a result, and as we deliver our priorities in investments and generate performance from all three vectors, adjusted capital generation will more closely track profits. Given the scale of our resources, we can support investment in our businesses as well as our stated dividend policy. Where we generate capital beyond the needs of our business, we will continue to make capital returns to shareholders. Such returns will reduce the overall cost of servicing future dividends as the share count is reduced. I'll hand back to Stephen.
The dramatic shift in the global economy has impacted the industry and our financial results. Despite these headwinds, by concentrating on what we can control, we have continued to deliver our strategy of building a much more durable business through the three-vector model based around diversification of revenue sources.
The current market turbulence strongly reinforces that this is the right strategy. The two vectors operating in the U.K. wealth market have both delivered resilient performance and are on track to increase our diversification into higher growth, higher margin businesses.
Performance in the investments vector was, like all of the sector, hit by market turbulence, combined with us being in a period of restructuring. We are doubling down on focusing the business on the strengths that lean into the micro global growth trends, cutting costs, and driving efficiency.
The current economic and market conditions mean that our ambition for group revenue growth and cost income improvement will take longer to deliver, depending, of course, on the speed of the market recovery. We are continuing to execute on our client-led growth strategy, first by improving the performance of each vector, and then by extracting value across all three.
We are confident our approach will diversify earnings, improve efficiency, deliver our revenue and cost ambitions, and ensure optimal use of capital. Now that the shape of the group is largely settled, you can expect inorganic actions on a more modest level. These will likely include both further divestments and selective reinvestment where we see capabilities that we need and compelling value. We are announcing a half-year dividend today of GBP 0.073.
As I said earlier, our disciplined approach to allocating capital is focusing on delivering shareholder returns, and we will continue to return capital in excess of business needs as further stake sales are realized. While the global economic outlook remains very uncertain, we are focusing on what we can control.
Namely, the continued execution of our strategy, and that will provide diversification of revenue streams and put the group on a sustainable growth trajectory. That concludes our presentation. We'll now take a short break and resume for your questions. Thank you. Welcome back. I'd like to ask the operator to open up for questions, please.
Of course. The first question is coming from Nicholas Herman from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. A lot to dig into, but I'll try to limit myself to one question, one clarification, if that's okay. The clarification is, could you please clarify the expected revenue attrition from the fund consolidation and rationalization?
Then my question on cost is, in terms of the GBP 540 million cost for the core business and about GBP 40 million costs for II. In terms of the cost decline coming from the core business, just to confirm, that is coming from your initiatives and not from flexing or delaying investment spend, where there may be a catch-up later on? I guess a part of that , when do you think you can now achieve your cost-income ratio target of about 70%? We talking 2024 or 2025? Thank you.
Let me open that up, and then I'll ask Stephanie to talk a little bit more about the detail on the cost reduction. The fund rationalization that we're doing is very obvious. You have 110 funds that comprise GBP 7 billion of assets, so this is a GBP 508 billion business.
You have got 1.5% of funds that have 110 fund management activities around them. It's the right thing to do. Now of course it takes time to do it, but it's really compelling logic to rationalize that tail such that our energy, our focus, our research, and our disciplines apply to the go-forward growth business.
When you think about the AUMs on the scale of the total business, you can see that it has a very small impact on revenues. Stephanie will talk a little bit about detail of the cost reduction, but let me address your question on the 70% cost-income ratio target. We focused in this market environment, there's market dislocation underway.
It's impacted the entire asset management sector. We're using that environment to accelerate the actions that we need to take, that we can control. We're not sitting here waiting for the market to recover. We are addressing the things we can control, and that's what you would expect us to do. Now, the cost-income ratio is a function of revenue growth and costs.
So because revenue is uncertain in this market environment, I'm specifically sharing detail on the things we control, which is cost. Where will the revenue environment be? Where will the market environment be? What will market levels be over the period? We don't know.
This is a point in maximum market uncertainty, so it would be foolish to give you the cost-income ratio, a timeline for that. The ambition to achieve it is unchanged. The resolve to take the actions against the cost base is strong, and we're well into the process. I'm not gonna speculate on where the market revenue is gonna be at this point. Stephanie?
Nicholas, thank you. Sorry, I think I caught most of that question. In terms of the 2022 costs, and being able to give you the guidance that overall we see a total reduction in 2022 full year, it's not about delaying investment at all. We're doing a very considered series of actions that we already have well underway, that will play out into 2022. We can make that statement around a total overall cost reduction in 2022, even taking account of the additional costs coming through from II. Where are those coming from?
Principally from the impacts of the actions that we've had through in terms of headcount, but also in terms of very close management of our supplier contracts, and those are having benefits as we come through into 2022. The program, of course, that we've talked about very specifically within the investments sector is also well underway. The majority of those actions will be complete by the end of 2023, and we will see many of the benefits in 2023. Equally, we will see the full realized benefits in 2024, and that program, as I say, is well underway already.
Thank you, Nicholas.
Thank you.
We have the next question from Arnaud Giblat from Exane. Please go ahead.
You may be on mute. Not hearing anything from Exane.
Hello, can you hear me?
Now we can. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sorry. If I could just ask a clarification in terms of the quantum of net savings achieved, that will be achieved in 2022 out of that GBP 75 million announced then today. My question is on net interest margins at II.
Can I ask you what the net interest margin are you currently earn on clients' monies? Can you give us a bit of a sensitivity to the short-term base rate in the U.K.? Do you see a risk of the FCA stepping in at some point and maybe imposing some further pass-throughs of high interest rates for your clients?
G enerally in the retail brokerages, we've seen that a lot of the upside from interest rates is being kept by the platform. I'm just wondering if there's a risk of the FCA stepping in at some point and asking you to pass it on specifically for sub clients. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. Actually, I'll hand over to Richard in a moment to address that. The first thing that I would say, and I think this is very important, in terms of net interest margin, first of all, if you look at the U.K. bank sector, the entire bank sector has so far passed on only 15% of the increase in net interest margin.
That is obviously a much bigger factor for the market overall than any of the direct investing platforms. Now, our platform, II, offers the best value for the direct investor in the U.K., and we analyze that value across the entire total cost to a client. The subscription model.
We recently reduced the cost associated with subsequent trades, and we analyze that relative to our peers, and we are committed to ensuring that II remains the best value platform and the best way to access investing in the U.K. We actually also just did announce a pass-through to the II clients as a consequence of rates moving up. Let me hand it over to Richard to illuminate that a little bit further.
Thank you, Stephen. Clearly, what we're also seeing here is this is the end of a very long period of quasi zero interest rates, and II has started paying interest for the first time ever, in July, as Stephen mentioned.
Currently, in terms of our through the business life cycle, our assumption, subject to the vagaries of market forces, is that our net interest margin will hover around 100 basis points. That's subject to all sorts of uncontrollables, not least of which is the Bank of England, the shape of the yield curve, competitive pressures, et cetera.
What we should be seeing, compared to what's been the case for the last 15 years, where we've had artificially super compressed rates, is some reversion to a more normal level of interest margin accruing to the business as opposed to quasi zero.
With respect to the question around regulatory action and just to build on Stephen's point, that today the clearing banks, I believe, actually pay lower interest than we do. It would be an extraordinary step for the regulator to price regulate in this space, and it's something which would move their footprint a long way from where they are today.
Given the fact that platforms, including ourselves, are listening to market forces, and we are paying interest on accounts, it would be a very surprising move. It's something that's been a concern they've raised occasionally over the last 15 years and it usually dies after the first breath.
I don't think it really has any great substance. To the original point, our spread expectations are around 100 points. That I think represents a reversion to some more normal level of interest rate behavior as we go through the business cycle.
Thank you, Nicholas.
We have the next question from Haley Tam from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Morning, Stephen. Morning, Stephanie.
Morning, Haley.
Thank you very much for taking my question. Could I ask quick questions, and it'll be shorter, hopefully. On costs, first of all, the GBP 150 million of gross cost savings and investments, that's a big number, right? It's 15% of your cost base in that vector in 2021. Does that mean that there's unlikely to be any further sources of savings after that, so we should look at revenue growth as the driver beyond those?
Could you clarify for me just exactly what the scale is that you expect to spend in terms of additional restructuring costs associated with that, so that we can better understand how much of the proceeds from non-core asset disposals that might consume in the future. Just one point of clarification, if I may, on interactive.
I noticed that your net new customer growth seems to have been 4,000 in H1, 'cause it's 404,000 in December and 408,000 now at the end of June. Yet you say you added 19,000 new customers. I just like to understand if there was something one-off about some redemptions there, perhaps. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Hayley. What I'm gonna do is we'll take the II question first because you do need to understand the net new number I gave you was correct. You do need to understand the post-acquisition activity that has gone on in II. Richard will talk to that.
Then I'll hand over to Chris, and Chris will talk about that you're right, the gross level of savings, GBP 150 million, is material because we are materially reshaping the business. But we did state that it's a net saving of GBP 75 million because we have specific investments associated with the change program as well. Richard, would you like to comment on the numbers?
Sure. On the question of the net new customers, we have two things going on. On the one hand, we have our organic engine, which is currently producing a net annualized 5% growth. That's around 20,000 net new customers on a current run rate basis. Clearly, that's seasonally skewed, so the Q1 tends to be higher.
To your comment on the absolute numbers, we also have the tail effect of a number of previous acquisitions. You'll recall that we acquired The Share Centre and, in June 2021, the EQi business from Equiniti. Those tailbooks have some runoff which skew those two numbers.
Thank you. Thanks, Richard. Chris, would you like to talk about what we're actually doing, what you're actually doing in the business to drive these simplification and the rationalization of this?
Yeah. Thanks, Stephen. Thanks, Hayley. As you say, we're targeting GBP 150 million of gross savings. Our cost-income ratio at the moment, certainly on the cost side of that equation, is largely a function of the inherent complexity that exists in the organization as a feature of a business that has grown inorganically over the past.
Through our program of simplification, we are eliminating a lot of that complexity, that sort of complexity premium that exists in the cost base. The fund rationalization is a material part of that, s o is the disposal of non-core assets. To your point around the restructuring costs, we think the capital that we're gonna generate from non-core assets should broadly offset any requirement for significant restructuring costs.
We wouldn't anticipate needing to model for material step-up in restructuring costs over and above the capital that we're gonna generate from simplification. Our program is really quite clear now. We know exactly which asset classes we are looking to move forward with and invest in.
We know which strategies inside of our desks we don't believe are aligned to the trends that Steven outlined earlier on. The program of shutting down 110 funds or merging 110 funds into areas to create more scale in the business is well underway and making really good progress. It is a large number.
It's a percentage of our overall cost base, but it's available to us as a result of the inherent complexity that has existed in the business historically, and we've got a clear plan to reduce that complexity and therefore take that out. It's really important to think about the extra GBP 75 million of investment in the business because the organization really is demonstrating the ability to raise assets in our focus areas and at good revenue yields.
You know, some examples are the largest revenue generating fund in the business at the moment is the Tritax Big Box fund, which has a blended fee margin of over 50 basis points. We're in the market raising a core infrastructure fund that will attract 70-80 basis points, depending on the size of commitment.
We're really optimistic about our ability to raise assets in high margin strategies that over time, as we get our flows into the right place, will create a growth business at attractive margins. It's important that we invest to make sure that we can deliver on that, the growth potential that the organization has.
Terrific. Thanks.
Thank you, Chris. Sorry. Could I clarify? The capital from non-core assets that will cover the restructuring costs, are you referring there to investment stake sales or actually sales of non-core assets within the investments sector?
We were in reference to disposals within the investments sector.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not related to the stakes, Haley.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have the next question coming from Tom Mills from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Just I saw that the NII from interactive investor was GBP 17 million in the first half. I appreciate your answer to Arno's question, but could you just give us maybe what you're expecting the run rate contribution from that to be based on the rate rises that we've already seen come through? That would be helpful. Thanks very much.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much, Tom. Let me switch over to Richard for that.
Hi. Thanks, Tom. You got a wonderful answer to the previous question on that. I'm not sure I can give you any additional guidance on go forward run rate. There was a few variables out there, and rates are, as Steven said earlier, we have a dislocation period and a great deal of volatility. I'm gonna stick to my previous comments, I'm afraid.
Yeah. Thank you, Richard.
Thanks.
I think we're getting close to the end of the call. Operator, do you have another question?
Yes, we do. Should I move on to the next one?
Yes. Go ahead.
All right. It is coming from Steven Haywood from HSBC. Please proceed.
Hi, Steven.
Hi, good morning. Sorry about the background noise. Two questions from me. The 56% cost-income ratio at II, is this sustainable? Can it get even better going forward? Secondly, I think Stephanie mentioned that capital resources cover the dividend costs. Can you tell us when will yearly adjusted capital generation cover your dividend costs? Thank you.
Okay. We'll take that in two parts. I'll first of all, the 56%, yes, it can get better. This is a scalable business. One of the things that attracted us to it was the fact that the tech was built out, that it's a terrific data model that uses the data to be able to inform the way it develops its products, its services, its growth. We fully expect to be able to improve that from this point going forward. Stephanie, would you like to talk a little bit about adjusted capital generation?
Yes. I think increasingly, as I referenced, Steven, in my script, we see just the way that we're taking a very disciplined approach to capital, that increasingly adjusted capital generation will very much track adjusted operating profit. Therefore, you should think of that in exactly the same way, increasingly in terms of its cover for dividends.
Thank you.
Thank you, Steven. Well, folks, we've reached the end of the call. Thank you very much for your interest in our turnaround story and the progress that we've made in deploying capital into successful businesses. We're confident that we are very focused on the things that we can control in a highly uncertain world, and I think that's what you really want us to do. Thank you very much.