Man Group made a profit before tax of USD541m for the financial year ended 31 March 2009, down from the USD743m profit made the previous year.
Diluted earnings per share were 24.8 cents, compared with 28.4 cents in 2009.
Man has a regulatory capital surplus of USD1.5bn and net cash balances of USD1.7bn.
The board will recommend a final dividend of 24.8 cents per share for the year ended 31
March 2010, giving a total dividend of 44 cents per share for the year.
Funds under management at 31 March were USD39.4bn, compared with USD42.4bn at 31 December 2009 and USD46.8bn at 31 March 2009.
Funds under management at 27 May 2010 are broadly unchanged from 31 March, with the FX impact of the weak Euro counterbalancing the effects of positive AHL performance.
Trading conditions for the managed futures style have improved, giving positive AHL performance for the calendar year to date.
On 17 May 2010 Man announced the proposed acquisition of GLG Partners to create a diversified alternative investment manager with approximately USD63bn of funds under management.
Peter Clarke, chief executive of Man, says: “The last two years have seen significant change in the hedge fund industry, with continued investor focus on transparency and liquidity of investment strategies and on the stability and governance of investment managers. Man has long been focussed through AHL and the multi-manager business on providing liquid investment strategies offering diversifying returns for investors. During the year we have taken decisive action to address the changes in our industry, as well as the impacts on our own business of redemptions from institutions seeking liquidity within their portfolios and a period of negative performance at AHL. We have restructured our multi-manager business around the transparency and security offered by managed accounts; reduced our run-rate cost base materially during the year; grown our global business in onshore regulated offerings to reflect increasing demand for these products; and continued our investment in AHL to generate a strong research pipeline and enhanced trading benefits.
“Against this backdrop we have seen a fall in both assets under management and profits in the year. We start the current year at this lower level of assets under management and with AHL still some distance away from performance fee high water marks. However, recent AHL performance has been positive despite the volatility and uncertainty of markets, and we have won new institutional mandates in our multi-manager business of USD1.5bn which will be funded over the coming months and are not yet reflected in our assets.”
