Man Group has seen its funds under management surge to a record USD117.7 billion in the last year, up from USD108.5 billion in 2018, which drove pre-tax profits up 54 per cent to USD386 million, as positive fund performance outweighed investor outflows.
The London-headquartered publicly-listed global hedge fund group generated positive investment gains of more than USD10 billion in 2019, reversing the previous year’s negative movement of USD7.7 billion. The solid performance ultimately outweighed the USD1.3 billion of net outflows suffered during the year (2018 saw Man draw net inflows of USD10.8 billion).
CEO Luke Ellis described 2019 as a year of “solid growth and continued strategic progress” for the group, which is often considered a bellwether for the UK’s broader alternative asset management industry.
Man’s alternative funds under management – which includes absolute return, total return and multi-manager strategies – grew to USD71.5 billion in the 12 months to 31 December, up from 2018’s year-end total of USD64.9 billion, driven by solid investor inflows of USD3.6 billion and positive investment movement of USD2.7 billion.
Meanwhile, long-only funds – spanning both systematic and discretionary strategies – reached USD46.2 billion by year-end, up from 2018’s USD43.5 billion, as investment gains of USD7.4 billion outweighed USD4.8 billion worth of net investor outflows.
Among the best performers in Man’s absolute return hedge fund strategies – which are managed under the AHL, GLG and Numeric brands – were the long-running systematic CTA strategies AHL Evolution, up 15.6 per cent, AHL Diversified, which gained 10 per cent, and AHL Alpha and Dimension, each up more than 7 per cent. The Man GLG Global Credit Multi-Strategy made 5.9 per cent.
On the downside, the GLG European Long/Short Fund lost 1.5 per cent annually, while Man Numeric Market Neutral Alternative strategy fell 3.4 per cent in 2019.
“We delivered strong absolute investment performance, making USD10.1billion in investment gains for our clients, and closed the period with record funds under management,” Ellis said in a statement on Friday morning.
“Over the course of the year, we saw continued inflows into our alternative strategies, although overall we recorded a small outflow as our clients reduced their equity allocations. In the fourth quarter, we returned to net inflows and that momentum has continued into this year.”