- Assets under management £323.3 billion (30 September 2014: £324.4 billion)
- Gross inflows in the quarter of £11.3 billion
- Following a more difficult month in December, new business flows have returned to more normal levels in January
- SWIP integration continues to progress in line with plan
- Continued discipline in managing costs and margins
Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive of Aberdeen, commented:
“The recent quarter can be considered in two parts. October and November were encouraging with overall flows in line with the previous quarter and equity flows positive. However, December was a reminder that investor sentiment remains fragile. Despite this and ongoing concerns about Europe and elsewhere, Aberdeen is in good shape. Importantly we have a strong balance sheet, a global client base and a wide range of capabilities to meet the needs of investors”
Assets under management and flows
The principal movements are summarised in the following table.
| Equities £bn |
Fixed Income £bn |
Aberdeen Solutions £bn |
Property £bn |
Total £bn |
|
| AUM at 30 September 2014 | 107.6 | 71.4 | 125.0 | 20.4 | 324.4 |
| Net new business flows – Aberdeen | (0.8) | (1.3) | (0.7) | (0.5) | (3.3) |
| Net new business flows – SWIP | (0.1) | (0.2) | (1.3) | 0.1 | (1.5) |
| Market movements & performance | (2.3) | 1.5 | 2.0 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
| FX movements | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 | (0.2) | 2.4 |
| AuM at 31 December 2014 | 106.3 | 72.0 | 125.1 | 19.9 | 323.3 |
Business flows
Gross inflows were a little higher than the previous quarter, principally in equities. However, outflows also increased as the emerging market backdrop remained tough. This was particularly evident in December, as a weakening of investor sentiment to emerging markets saw a pick-up in outflows for the month.
Equities returned a small net inflow for the two months to November, continuing the improvement seen in the previous quarter. However, December saw higher outflows from emerging market equities. Both Asia Pacific and global equities attracted net inflows for the quarter.
Fixed income had net outflows of £1.5 billion. Outflows came principally from lower margin strategies although emerging market debt experienced a drop off in demand as investor's appetite for risk waned.
Within Aberdeen solutions, flows were again mixed with outflows principally from multi-asset and the anticipated level of structural outflow from the closed insurance book acquired with SWIP.
The property division remains stable, albeit there were some outflows in the quarter from the wind-down of the DEGI funds instigated over four years ago. The SWIP open end property fund has now been rebranded Aberdeen Property Trust and has continued to attract consistent net inflows.
Outlook
As this quarter has demonstrated, investor sentiment remains fragile and we expect global markets and demand for investment products to continue to be volatile. Despite the headline net outflow, we are winning new business at good fee margins and we remain disciplined in managing costs.
The SWIP integration is on track with the more complex elements of the migration expected to complete by end of 2015 and the final cost synergies likely to be ahead of our initial expectations. The broader offering acquired from SWIP means that the overall business is better balanced and the enlarged business remains well capitalised and cash generative. We are confident that we remain well positioned to meet the long term, changing needs of our investors over the coming years.
For further information, please contact:
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC
Martin Gilbert + 44 (0) 20 7463 6000
Bill Rattray + 44 (0) 20 7463 6000
Maitland
Neil Bennett + 44 (0) 20 7379 5151
