Shares digital

Hedge fund manager Man Group (EMG) has come out of the recent market turmoil with its tail up. Unlike its long-only fund manager cousins, which are generally haemorrhaging assets, and in sharp contrast to the collapse of some of its highly leveraged contemporaries, Man continues to record net fund inflows.

Last week’s pre-close trading statement revealed fund sales of $3.5 billion during the three months to 31 March offset by $2.6 billion of redemptions, that is a net $0.9 million gain. Not only is that net gain twice as good as the third quarter’s $0.4 billion, but it is also double analyst expectations of $0.5 billion.

It is perhaps unsurprising that Man has continued to attract funds with its key AHL fund – a ‘black box’ quantitative portfolio – performing well. Performance added $0.8 billion to assets under management (AUM) which now stand at $75 billion. That performance element was below expectations and points to Man’s other funds struggling, but there is plenty of positive news to counterbalance this. Last week the group opportunistically expanded exposure to the credit markets with the purchase of Ore Hill.

Shares says: Many quantitative funds have disappointed during the market turbulence but Man seems to have found the formulae for success and Ore will prove to be a good spot.

by: Simon Keane