UK - Henderson Global Investors saw its assets under management (AuM) drop by £3bn in the first four months of the year because of outflows and negative returns.

Presenting its interim report today, the company said its AuM had fallen to £56.2bn at the end of April, down from £59.2bn four months earlier.

Despite booking £2bn in net institutional inflows, these were offset by withdrawals from retail funds and by Henderson's major client Pearl.

Henderson experienced outflows of £1.1bn from its Pearl Group mandate, £600m from the run-off of Pearl's closed life books and £500m in previously-notified
withdrawals.

The group added the Pearl Staff Pension Scheme withdrew its mandate of £1.8bn in the period, resulting in a future revenue loss of approximately £2m per annum.

"These fund flows, together with unfavourable market and foreign exchange rate movements of £1bn in the period, brought total assets under management to £56.2bn at April 30, 2008," said the group.

Pearl has a further £8bn of assets which it gave notice on in 2007, but has yet to withdraw these.

Commenting on investment performance, the group said it was encouraged by recent improvements in its fixed income performance, albeit it was still "somewhat disappointed" by the short-term performance of equities.

The company also said within property, the US business performed relatively well in comparison to the pan-European property.
 
"Overall, we remain comfortable with the guidance we gave in February on net performance and transaction fees of £30m for 2008," concluded Henderson.

Commenting on the interim results, Roger Yates, Hederson Group's chief executive said the global market conditions in the first four months of the year have been difficult for the company.

However, he added: "Our primary focus is on profitable organic growth, but we also believe that, in these more difficult markets, we are in a good position to capitalise on other opportunities."

Henderson is actively looking for those opportunities where it can lift out teams or make bolt-on acquisitions that meet its criteria.

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