Man Group assets up after bumper Japan fund launch

Man Group said assets under management rose over the past two months and profits beat its forecasts, as the world's biggest listed hedge fund firm builds on recent client wins and a large fundraising in Japan. The firm, which now runs $71 billion, up three per cent since March, said it had raised $2bn from the launch of an open-ended version of its flagship AHL fund in Japan.

This is above the $1.5bn it said it had raised earlier this month, which had smashed analysts' forecasts.

Man Group shares were trading up 2.51 per cent at 245.1 pence at 0703 GMT, leading a 0.41 per cent rise in the FTSE 100.

"The phenomenal success of the Japan AHL launch demonstrates the concerns people had around the ... earthquake and ... tsunami around our asset-raising were completely unfounded," CEO Peter Clarke said on a call to journalists.

However, AHL, a "blackbox" fund named after 1980s founders Michael Adam, David Harding and Martin Lueck, is down six per cent since May 2, after a sharp sell-off in commodity markets earlier this month, and has now fallen back to end-March levels.

This takes the fund to around 12 per cent below its so-called high-water mark on average, above which it can earn performance fees. Clarke said he didn't expect "recent performance to have any impact on immediate sales".

"Despite AHL having made no absolute progress since March year-end, sales momentum is improving," said Singer analyst Sarah Ing, who rates the shares a buy.

In March the firm said clients had finally begun to return to its funds, helped by last year's $1.6bn acquisition of GLG, ending a two-year streak of net outflows.

Pretax profit for the year was $599 million, above its March forecast of $560 million, boosted by a rise in performance fees after strong returns from AHL in March.

Clarke added that sales in the Middle East, Latin America and parts of Europe had helped it raise $400m from the launch of its first guaranteed fund to combine AHL and GLG funds.

Earlier this month Clarke said the firm plans to expand the number of fund managers based in Asia.