UK - Aberdeen Asset Management saw its asset under management fall in the first half of its financial year to the end of March by almost £8.5bn (€9.55bn) thanks largely to outflows from its fixed income.

Prior to today Aberdeen AM had been the UK's largest listed investment house, however it unveiled a first half of 2009 report revealing it has seen fixed income outflows of 10.5% against inflows of £1.6bn, making up the bulk of its £13.9bn in total outflows.

Total assets under management were down from £111bn to £96.3bn in the six-month period to the end of March 2009, and £13bn of this was outflows from institutional mandates since 30 September 2008, reducing institutional holdings to just over £70bn.

The firm admitted it had underperformed its fixed income performance as it had been overweight in credit related to bonds, despite their high quality, and the market has been hit be widening credit spreads.

Aberdeen argued some of its outflow was the end of the some fixed term mandates though it had also been "exacerbated by some corporate activity and portfolio rebalancing" from some clients, and officials claim the outflow of assets should slow over the next 18 months.

Interestingly, its property division - recently renamed as Aberdeen Property Investors following its merger with Goodman Property Investors (Api) - is still seeing more interest than outflows, as its gross inflows, including assets under to be funded, were £379m thanks to gross inflows of just over £1bn. A further £542m has yet to be funded.

That said, the firm recognised there will be lower revenue generated in the short-term as a result of fewer transactions being conducted in the real estate market, even though API does "expect to see some good asset growth in the medium term".

In other asset classes, equity inflows outweighed redemptions too, at £2.7bn and £2.4bn respectively, though over half of the inflows or £1.5bn have yet to be funded.

And the multi-asset class had redemptions of £247m against new business of £91m.

The exact breakdown of assets under management by asset type is now £38.8bn in fixed income holdings, £28.6bn in equities, £23bn in property and £5.6bn in multi-assets.

Elsewhere, UBS Group has also announced its asset management division saw outflows of CHF7.7bn (€5.10bn) in the first quarter of this year to CHF19.9bn and suffered a group total loss of CHF2bn.

Institutional outflows are said to have slowed to CHF1.1bn from CHF16.7bn.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Julie Henderson on + 44 (0)20 7261 4602 or email julie.henderson@ipe.com

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