Change in fortunes looks here to stay
THINGS finally seem to be looking up for Man Group.
After recovering from being hit by big outflows throughout 2009 and 2010, it has now also managed to sidestep the spectre of the Japanese earthquake, with the launch of a Japan version of its AHL fund attracting $2bn of investment.
The Nomura Global Trend is performing well ahead of expectations even without accounting for the volatile market, and will be a useful precedent for management’s stated intention that the greatest growth opportunities are with similar open-ended alternatives and institutional funds.
If management can maximise the prospects in alternatives, then it should be able to build on the rebound of AHL and a pick up in inflows to gain traction on some much-needed momentum.
That means the gap between Man Group and its peers – against whom it’s currently trading at a more than 200 per cent discount – could start to close.
While AHL may dominate any share movement in the short term (as evidenced by the two per cent lift on yesterday’s figures), the planned increase in diversity is likely to prop up longer term growth as well.