Henderson sees £850m outflow as turmoil bites
SHARES in fund manager Henderson dropped 5.39 per cent yesterday after it posted a net outflow of £857m in the first quarter.
The stock closed at 115.8p after the Anglo-Australian group reported a further decline in its low-margin institutional business. It experienced a net first-quarter institutional outflow of £610m, a net drain of £110m at its retail arm, mainly from its British funds, and a £137m outflow from insurance clients.
Chief executive Andrew Formica said he was “disappointed” with net fund outflows, which contrast with Aberdeen Asset Management, which this week posted a £2.4bn net inflow for the first three months of the year.
“Although equity markets are higher than at the beginning of the year, continued market volatility and economic uncertainty during the period have kept investor demand for risk assets subdued. However… investment performance has been strong.”
Henderson said 67 per cent of its equity funds and 74 per cent of its bond funds were outperforming benchmarks over the past year and investment performance helped lift total assets under management 3.7 per cent to £66.7bn.
Formica said the group has made “a number of changes and new hires” in distribution and fund management to get to positive net fund flows.
Analysts said the fall in Henderson’s share price was partly due to the shares going ex-dividend yesterday. Just over 17.5 per cent of votes were cast against the remuneration report.
● Henderson has transferred the £160m legacy pension fund of Gartmore to Pension Corporation. Henderson bought Gartmore in a rescue merger last year.