Schroders surges as funds flow in

5th Aug 2010 09:55

Fund manager Schroders' interim profits surged forward as new business and assets under management both showed big first half gains.Pre-tax profits increased more than five-fold to £188.2m, from £36.3m, and more than doubled even stripping out one-off costs last year. Revenues rose to £693m from £392m.Net inflows of new money slowed a little towards the end of the period from a record first quarter but still continued strongly, with inflows over the six months at £16.1bn. Some 80% of these net inflows came from clients outside the UK.Funds under management at the end of June were £164bn, up from £148.4bn at end December.The one weak spot was the private banking business where profits fell to £6.6m from £14.9m hit by lower interest income and a £4.7m bad debt."Against a background of continued economic uncertainty, we expect markets to remain volatile. This is likely to impact retail investor demand, although our Intermediary business is highly diversified by product and region," chief executive Michael Dobson said.The interim dividend rises to 11p from 10p.