Aberdeen Asset new business triples

8th Jan 2010 07:15

Aberdeen Asset Management had a 'successful' last three months of 2009, with gross new business wins more than 3½ times the figure for the fourth quarter of 2008.Wins for the period of £9.6bn compared with £2.6bn a year earlier, with a further £3.1bn of new mandates awarded but not funded at the end of December.Redemptions of £12.2bn were largely from the lower margin fixed income and money market products, said the firm, resulting in an overall net outflow of £2.6bn, less than last year's £4.3bn.'Whilst the overall effect of net flows is negative in AuM terms, the fee mix has been advantageous, in that the blended fee rate on continued, strong, net levels of equity inflows has been considerably higher than on the net outflows from fixed interest and money market; the impact on annualised revenues has therefore been positive,' said Aberdeen.The equities side did better, with net inflows there of £3.4bn versus just £0.1bn in the three months to December 2008. Total assets under management dipped 1.4% to £144.1bn.'We have continued to improve the mix of our business with strong inflows into our higher margin equities funds and have significantly strengthened our balance sheet thanks to strong cash flow and our recent convertible bond issue,' said chief executive Martin Gilbert.'The first quarter of our new financial year has seen global markets continue in the more settled vein which emerged from mid-2009. Our new business flows continue to build momentum, with the majority of flows being into our higher margin equity products and we are trading ahead of budget.'In a separate statement, Aberdeen said it has has agreed to buy certain fund management assets and contracts of RBS Asset Management for £84.7m. Assets under management of the business were £13.5bn as at 30 September 2009, with associated annual revenues of about £22m and operating profit of £10m. The pair have also entered into a distribution agreement for certain products between Aberdeen and RBS Wealth Management.