UK – Specialist UK equities fund manager Liontrust Asset Management says it lost £268m (€392m) of pension fund assets in the year to the end of March.

The withdrawals follow a £1.1bn outflow of pension fund assets in the prior year.

“A net £268m of pension fund assets were withdrawn during the year while net unit trust redemptions were £128m,” the company said in its earnings report today.

But it added: “The second half of the year was encouraging in terms of more positive fund flows.”

Funds under management rose by 15% to £5.1bn from £4.4bn a year before – although average funds under management was down 10% at £4.5bn. Pre-tax profit slipped 2% at £10.5m.

"These are strong results bearing in mind average funds under management were down during the year,” said chief executive Nigel Legge. “As at 31 March 2006, they stand 12% higher than the year's average.

He added the firm has added two new fund managers and “established an innovative infrastructure for broadening our product range to include European equity products in the near future”.