25th Feb 2015 07:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Man Group PLC Wednesday revealed plans for yet another share buyback, upped its dividend and reported a 62% rise in adjusted pretax profit, but the alternative asset manager remains cautious on the near-term future as it doesn't expect demand for its AHL products to rise enough until later in 2015.
The results come almost one year to the date since a USD115 million share buyback and dividend hike helped to kick off an ascent that has seen the stock more than double in that time frame. Since launching the buyback, Chief Executive Manny Roman, who has led the group's turnaround since replacing Peter Clarke about two years ago, has made a spate of acquisitions aimed at diversifying the group.
In a statement, Man Group, which is organised around the trio of AHL, FRM, and GLG businesses, said net inflows amounted to USD0.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014. Across the year as a whole, net inflows amounted to USD3.3 billion, a reverse from net outflows of USD3.6 billion in 2013. Funds under management rose by 35% to USD72.9 billion over the course of 2014.
Adjusted pretax profit, which is meant to show the underlying state of the business, rose to USD481 million in 2014, compared with USD297 million in 2013, with Man Group citing higher performance fees and cost savings, partially offset by a fall in management fees linked to a decline in its blended management fee margin on changes in its product and business mix.
Man Group upped its full-year dividend for the year to 10.1 cents from 7.9 cents and said it intends to repurchase USD175 million of shares.
"Despite the strong performance across the AHL range in 2014 we do not expect to see a meaningful pick-up in demand for these products until later in the year, and this, coupled with a slowdown in sales across our discretionary strategies and the ongoing volatility of the markets in which we operate, means that we remain cautious in our near-term outlook," Manny Roman said in a statement.
"After the significant progress made against our strategic objectives in 2014, however, we are better positioned as a group to grow our business profitably over time. We have a more diversified offering to clients and a range of attractive options for growth. If we are able to deliver superior risk adjusted returns for our clients, as we were able to in particular in our quantitative business last year, we will be able to leverage our global distribution to grow our assets steadily," Roman said.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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