Profits at Standard Life Aberdeen fell in the first half of this year despite a slowing in outflows and a rise in assets under management.
For the six months to June the Edinburgh-based asset manager reported adjusted profit before tax of £280 million (€303 million), down from £311 million for the first half of 2018, and lower than analyst expectations of £288 million.
Meanwhile, investors pulled £15.9 billion from the listed fund manager in the six months to June: an improvement compared with outflows of £24 billion in the second half of 2019. In a statement, the firm said the outflows “remained concentrated in a narrow range of strategies”.
In spite of the outflows, total assets under management and administration rose 5% to £577.5 billion, up from £551.5 billion at the end of 2018, as market gains of £41.2 billion offset net outflows of investor cash.
SLA’s chief executive Keith Skeoch said that the firm had made “good progress” in reshaping its business “to take advantage of the trends impacting our industry both globally and in the UK,” with £234 million of the targeted post-merger savings of £350 million already achieved.
“We are encouraged by an improvement in our investment performance and a growing number of strategies with positive ratings from investment consultants,” he said.
“We are seeing inflows that are more diverse and are pleased to have retained £35 billion of Lloyds Banking Group assets.”
Graham Spooner, an investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said the results were a “mixed bag” for investors. “Net outflows of funds continue, however this is at a slower rate than what we saw in the last six months of 2018,” he said.
The interim dividend remained unchanged at 7.3 pence per share.
The results, announced on August 7, saw shares in the firm drop over 6% in early morning trading.
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