Despite reporting a 7% rise in funds under management (FUM) in its interim results for the six months to 30 June, the share price of Man Group (LSE: EMG) is currently down 4% so far this morning, having recovered from being 6.6% down at one point.
The company reported that gross sales had increased 91% over H1 2013, to $12.4bn, with redemptions down 17%, at $9.6bn. There were net inflows of $2.8bn, compared with a net outflow of $5bn in H1 2013.
However, Man says that investment performance was mixed. Whilst its flagship AHL Diversified fund gained 8.7% and FRM Diversified II was up 1.4%, the GLG Multistrategy product fell 1.9% and Japan CoreAlpha dropped 1.4%. The patchy performance was attributed to “a continued volatile market environment”.
Adjusted pre-tax profit was up 10%, at $148m, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was 7.1 cents, up 24.5% on H1 2013’s 5.7 cents. In line with Man’s policy of paying at least 100% of the adjusted management fee earnings per share as a dividend, the board is recommending an interim dividend of 4 cents per share — that’s a rise of 54% over last year’s interim payout of 2.6 cents per share.
The company says that its acquisition of the US-based quant-fund manager Numeric is on-track to complete in Q3/Q4, and that the purchase of fund-of-funds company Pine Grove will “complete shortly”.
Commenting on the interims, CEO Manny Roman said:
“In the first half of 2014, we made progress towards our strategic objectives taking significant steps to position the firm for future growth and largely completing our restructuring process.
“We remain committed to investing in talent, research and technology and building the optimal environment to deliver superior risk adjusted performance for our clients which will ultimately translate into the delivery of value for our shareholders.”
Man’s share price is up almost 35% in the year-to-date, compared with a FTSE 100 index that’s around 1.3% down over the same period. However, over five years Man’s share price has plunged around 55%, versus a 44% gain for the FTSE 100.
