Hargreaves Lansdown has given more time for a private equity consortium to firm up its £5.4bn offer for the company as its latest trading update revealed it had reached a record AUA of £155.3bn.

Hargreaves Lansdown gained 61,000 net new clients during the second half of last year.

Four Financial Planners have been snapped up by Tilney Bestinvest from firms including HSBC and Hargreaves Lansdown as part of what the firm called a “hiring blitz”.