Henderson sees its assets grow by 5pc
FUND management group Henderson saw its assets under management rise five per cent over the third quarter of the year due to market and foreign exchange gains, despite cautious investors pulling a net £100m out of the firm’s funds.
Assets under management grew £2.8bn to a total of £59.2bn over the quarter, pulling them up again past levels last seen at the beginning of the year. Henderson said that favourable currency and market movements of £3.1bn had been offset by the £100m of net outflows and the transfer of its £200m International Property Fund over to Aviva Investors.
Henderson chief executive Andrew Formica warned “the risk appetite of both retail and institutional investors remains low, driven by poor economic news and volatile, albeit improving, equity markets”.
Henderson’s lower-margin institutional business recorded net inflows of £200m, boosted by a strong performance in fixed income products, though that was counteracted by redemptions of £200m from the New Star Institutional Managers arm.
Within higher-margin products, most of the flows came into the Horizon range, though investment trusts saw £200m of outflows.
The group said its investment performance remained solid, with 67 and 65 per cent of equity and fixed income products respectively outperforming over a one-year period. The Horizon funds remained Henderson’s star performer, reflected in its inflows, with 89 per cent of assets outperforming over one year. Hedge fund performance was disappointing over the year at just 35 per cent.