Assets rise at stormy F&C as change looms
SHARES in F&C Asset Management slipped again yesterday after it posted a further £1.7bn of outflows for the first quarter.
The firm, which has endured a turbulent 18 months including a boardroom coup, said the outflows had included key client exits, the loss of third-party institutional cash and withdrawals from the Thames River Global Bond products.
F&C’s shares closed down 1.86 per cent at 66p last night, having lost more than 20 per cent since activist investor Edward Bramson won the chairman’s role in a shareholder vote in February last year.
Bramson has received a boost, however, from the rally in bond and share prices which helped investment performance and pushed up total assets under management 1.7 per cent to £101.8bn at the end of March. Retail assets rose 6.8 per cent to £4.9bn.
The firm is trying to refocus on institutional clients and Bramson is due to publish the second half of his review, covering the retail, property and investment trust arms, on Tuesday.
He is on course to reduce costs by £33.2m by the end of next year and the firm has stayed tight-lipped on whether more cuts will follow.
“We expect this to focus on the branding… the level of costs and the ongoing strategy to maximise the value of the business,” said Peel Hunt.
F&C also said its volume of awarded but unfunded mandates increased during the quarter, resulting in a net pipeline of new business of £1bn.