Man Group PLC (LSE:EMG) saw US$0.5bn of outflows and another drop in assets under management (AUM) during what it said was a “very difficult” quarter for the asset management industry.
The hedge fund manager was hit by a whopping US$4.5bn of negative currency swings, primarily from the US dollar strength, though it said this was partially offset by performance-linked leverage movements.
AUM had dropped to US$138.4bn at the end of September from US$142.3bn at the half-year stage, also below where it was a year ago.
On the positive side, it generated a US$1.6bn investment performance from absolute return strategies and US$0.1bn from multi-manager solutions, partly offset by a US$0.2bn decline in total return strategies.
Net flows into multi-manager of US$3.4bn were counterbalanced by US$1.5bn of outflows from absolute return and US$1bn from total return, leading to a positive flow of US$0.9bn into alternative strategies.
But long-only funds saw US$1.4bn of outflows, mostly from discretionary funds.
It largest single fund, AHL TargetRisk at US$13.9bn, has delivered a negative return of almost 18% in the first nine months of the year.
The best returns have been at AHL Diversified (up 23.2% over nine months), AHL Alpha (up 15.3%), AHL Dimension (up 12.7%), the Man Alternative Risk Premia Strategy (up 11.8%) and GLG Japan CoreAlpha Equity (up 10.4%, a 15.9% relative return versus its benchmark).