Man Group hit by soaring dollar as assets slide 2 per cent

Man Group revealed investors had been scrambling to withdraw their cash in the past quarter as its assets under management slid to $138.4bn amid a crash in sterling and market volatility.

The investment management group said that the value of its assets under management tumbled 2.7 per from $142.3bn in June in what was a “a very difficult quarter for the asset management industry”.

Total outflows from its funds topped $500m, the fim said, despite investment performance from its absolute return strategies hitting $1.6bn.

Both assets under management and net flows were above consensus, it added.

The results come amid a flurry of torrid results for the City’s asset managers which have been rocked by market volatility and nervous investors pulling their cash from funds.

Man Group said currency fluctuations had caused a $4.5bn hit from currency fluctuations, “primarily from US dollar strength”.

Shares in the firm tumbled beyond three per cent after the trading update this morning.

The results came as Man Group called in finance veteran Alberto Musalem as a non-executive director on its audit and risk committee and remuneration committee. 

Man Group chair John Cryan said he would bring extensive investment management experience, economic and public policy expertise and broad knowledge of capital markets and regulation,” said chairman John Cryan.

Musalem – currently a director of Congress-founded home loan mortgage corporation Freddie Mac – has held positions at the likes of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the International Monetary Fund.