City pleased with Aberdeen Asset Management's success in emerging markets

Published on Monday 26 July 2010 15:29

ABERDEEN Asset Management pleased the market with tripled net inflows of client money in the three months to end-June as freshening interest in emerging market equities offset exits from bond, property and money market funds.

The Scottish fund manager revealed that, despite volatile financial markets deterring some investors from taking the plunge, it saw net inflows of 337 million, up from 100m in the previous three months.

Martin Gilbert, chief executive, said that although there had been a 2 billion net outflow in fixed-income assets in the latest period, "we are still seeing huge potential inflows into emerging markets equity and global equity".

Aberdeen's net inflows to equity products reached 2.9bn, with close to half of the total going to global emerging markets products, continuing a recent trend. The company said Asia-Pacific, where it has grown strongly in recent years, saw about 900m of net inflows.

However, it was not immune to market volatility as see-saw markets saw the value of assets under management fall to 164.7bn in its third quarter from 170.9bn at end-March.

Broker JP Morgan said Aberdeen's inflows were "a pleasant surprise". They go against the grain of recent other performances in the asset management sector, with US fund giant BlackRock reporting nearly $34bn in outflows in its latest quarter, while earlier in July hedge fund major Man Group disclosed 1bn in client withdrawals.

Ian Poulter, a fund management analyst with Canaccord, said: "It reiterates the encouraging trends we have see from AAM recently. It is a creditable performance to have a fall in assets under management of less than 4 per cent with the movements there have been in the market over the quarter."

He said Aberdeen's broad business split gave it "a better shot at riding out movements in markets".