Man Group Announces Impressive First Half Results

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

18 November 2005

Boosted by rising fund sales and performance fee income, Man Group PLC, the world's largest listed hedge fund firm, announced a healthy pre-tax profit of US$575 million for the six months to September 30, 2005, an increase of 59% on the same period last year, beating analysts' expectations.

Against a backdrop of slower fund inflows and lower returns across the industry, Man announced yesterday that the firm achieved fund sales of $3.5 billion in the first half, of which $1.6 billion was institutional sales. The firm earned $166 million in performance fees, up from $31 million.

The total of funds under Man's management stood at $44.4 billion (of which $18.4 billion was institutional funds) at the end of September, up from $39.1 billion at the same point last year.

Since 30 September, Man has also raised an additional $575 million of investor money from its latest global fund offering, the Man IP 220 Limited.

Recurring net management fee income was up 26% to $327 million over the first six months, while brokerage net income rose by 19% to $83 million.

Diluted earnings per share on total operations increased by 57% to 138 cents and the company's dividend is up 30% in US dollar terms to 31.2 cents.

Commenting on the results, Stanley Fink, Man Group's Chief Executive, observed that:

"The Man Group has had a successful first half, with our fund investors seeing good performance across the product range and our shareholders enjoying strong profit growth in all areas."

Man Group also expects its future performance to be boosted by its recent decision to acquire the regulated futures brokerage business of Refco, formerly the largest independent futures brokerage in the United States, for $323 million.

Mr Fink went on to observe that:

"This represents an exciting opportunity for Brokerage to access a wider customer base, improve transactional efficiencies and further develop the pool of liquidity represented by the enhanced customer flow."

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