Man Group Assets Up, But Profit Falls
Monday, May 30, 2011

Man Group, the world's largest listed hedge fund, has announced that assets under management have grown since the end of the last quarter, ending two years of outflows amid a difficult fund raising environment, although the good news was tempered by a 40% fall in annual profits.

The firm said on May 26 that funds under management had increased by just under USD2bn since the end of the last financial year on March 31, bringing total FUM to an estimated USD71bn. Strong net inflows since year end include USD2bn from Nomura Global Trend and USD400m from Man IP220 GLG, the first guaranteed product to include GLG strategies. Over USD10bn is under management in UCITS funds.

However, profit before tax fell from USD541m last year to USD324m this year, although this was comfortably above forecast profit of USD280m thanks to strong investment performance in the last week of March 2011 and an adjustment to the GLG acquisition balance sheet. Earnings per share from continuing operations fell to 14 cents per share from 24.8 cents per share in 2010.

Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man, said:

“Over the last year we have built Man into the industry’s most comprehensive provider of liquid alternative investment styles. We acquired and integrated GLG without disruption to investment performance or flows, continued to expand the range of our investment management capabilities, and developed new products and formats. Combined with the wide geography of our franchise, this has resulted in strong demand from institutions and private investors globally, and growing assets under management. Our recent AHL open-ended launch in Japan, which has now raised $2 billion, is a clear example of this momentum and is being followed by a Japan GLG currency launch."

“Macro uncertainty has impacted markets and performance across most asset classes again recently, reinforcing investors' long-term focus on liquid and diversifying investment strategies. Man is positioned to address these requirements through our focus on performance, our wide range of investment strategies, and the scale and resources we can apply to producing solutions for investor portfolios across the world. We are very well placed to meet investor demand."