Assets under administration at investment platform Nucleus rose 7.9% year on year to £17.4bn in 2020, but profits after tax dropped 47% to £3.2m, as the platform gears up for its acquisition this year by rival James Hay.

Earnings per share also dropped 46% year on year.

The platform saw an overall rise of 4.3% in customer numbers to 101,029.

Net revenue for the platform grew 1.6% with an expected reduction in blended revenue yield due to improved terms for a small number of large adviser firms.

The platform also noted that the acquisition of OpenWealth has now completed and is expected to be “increasingly accretive” in future years.

Adjusted EBITDA recovered in the second half of the year following a battering in the first half from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, ending the year at £5.7m.

Nucleus has put its final dividend on hold, with directors resolving not to recommend a final dividend for the year, due to the offer by rival James Hay to acquire the entire platform.

The platform’s new model portfolio service, Nucleus IMX, which was soft launched in the fourth quarter has now been rolled out to all platform users. The platform shared in its results that from 1 January 2021 IMX has been the third highest DFM for net inflows on the Nucleus platform.

David Ferguson, founder and CEO of Nucleus, said: “The Q4 2020 recovery in inflows has continued strongly through Q1 2021 with gross and net inflows already up on the whole of the prior quarter and taking us to increased AUA of £17.8bn as at 21 March. With the last part of March (normally our busiest time of the year) still to come, I expect the coming days to round off our best ever quarter for new business activity.”