11th Sep 2020 09:04
(Alliance News) - Ashmore Group PLC said Friday its profit was a little higher in its most recent financial year although assets under management declined amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The emerging markets asset manager reported GBP221.5 million pretax profit for its financial year ended June 30, up 0.7% from GBP219.9 million the year before as management fees increased by 7.3% to GBP330.0 million from GBP307.6 million.
However, assets under management shrank 8.9% to USD83.6 billion from USD91.8 billion, which Ashmore said reflected the impact of the pandemic in its financial third quarter. It experienced flat net outflows over the year as well as continued allocations by existing and new institutional clients, but this was offset by mutual fund redemptions relating to Covid-19's damage to market conditions. It recorded net inflows to equity products in each of its financial quarters.
The company has recommended a 12.10 pence per share final dividend, which would lift the total per share for the year to 16.90p from 16.65p.
Chief Executive Mark Coombs said: "The group's business model, based on a consistent global operating platform, has proven its resilience in this challenging period and, after the initial negative impact in Q3, the investment processes are delivering outperformance as markets recover and client flows have continued to stabilise.
"The economic and social effects of the virus will continue for some time and the medium to long term impact remains uncertain. However, the huge diversity of emerging markets means that countries will be affected and will respond differently, thereby providing a wide range of potential return scenarios for active managers. Importantly, many emerging nations have the policy flexibility to cope with the challenges, and they provide superior growth and yield prospects compared with many developed markets, where high equity valuations and persistently low or negative rates combine with low growth and high levels of debt. This provides clear incentives for investors to increase allocations to both equity and fixed income markets in the emerging world and therefore supports the medium-term growth opportunity for Ashmore's specialist approach."
Shares in Ashmore were up 0.1% at 391.80 pence in London on Friday morning.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Ashmore