Man Group Announces Record Fund Sales

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

01 June 2007

Man Group, the London-listed hedge fund company, has announced record fund sales in the year to the end of March 2007 of $15.9 billion.

Announcing its preliminary results for the year, Man Group said that assets under management grew by 6.4% compared with the previous year, to $61.7 billion by the end of March 2007. The company estimated that since the year end, assets under management have grown to in excess of $65 billion.

Profit before tax on asset management was up 13% last year, to $1.3 billion. Recurring net management fee income was up 34% to $943 million. Net performance fee income was down 20% to $358 million. Profit before tax on the company's brokerage operation, which has been discontinued, climbed 69% to $257 million.

Diluted earnings per share on total operations was up 25% to 63.9 cents, while diluted earnings per share on continuing operations was up 15% to 55.4 cents.

Dividends relating to the year were up 40% in US dollar terms to 20.0 cents. The proposed final dividend of 12.7 cents will be payable at the rate of 6.42 pence per ordinary share, the company said.

“These record results underscore the strength of our business franchise," commented Man Group Chief Executive, Peter Clarke. "The record level of sales in the period reflects high levels of demand for our products from both institutional and private investors, and the power of our distribution network in accessing investors world-wide."

"The strong growth in assets under management in the year has continued into the current year, with performance and sales combining to drive assets under management up $3.5 billion in the first two months, to a total of over $65 billion. Together with new initiatives in our product offering and continued development in our range of investment managers, we are very confident about the prospects for the year ahead," Clarke added.

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