AUM up at Ashmore, but performance fees minimal

Emerging markets asset manager Ashmore saw assets under management (AUM) rise by 2.5% in the final quarter of 2011, driven by a mixture of net inflows and positive investment performance.

AUM at the end of the year stood at $60.4bn, up from $58.9bn at the end of September. The group enjoyed net inflows of $0.5bn during the period.

The star performers were corporate debt (+26.7% over the quarter), blended debt (+10.1%), local currency (+9.5%) and external debt (+5.4%).

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On the other side of the coin, equity assets under management fell 5.4%, "alternatives" dipped 7.1%, while the multi-strategy and overlay/liquidity pots declined 10.3% and 2.4% respectively.

There were net inflows within the blended debt, local currency, corporate debt and external debt themes, with the largest inflows arising within segregated mandates, while net outflows were experienced in the multi-strategy theme (from Asian retail investor focused products), equities and alternatives themes.

Stripping out the effects of the inflow and outflow of funds, positive performance was greatest in external debt with blended debt, multi-strategy, local currency and equities also experiencing favourable performance, the group statement said. Some adverse performance was experienced in overlay/liquidity, corporate debt and alternatives.

For funds having a performance year ending December 2011 performance fees were, as anticipated, minimal, which together with the fees previously announced for the August 2011 year-end funds and other crystallised performance fees recognised in the period give overall first-half performance fees of around £23m.

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