Assets under management fell 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to 322.5 billion pounds ($548 billion), the firm said in a statement on Monday, after a client pulled 4.2 billion pounds from some of Aberdeen's low-margin equity funds.

Excluding the withdrawal, underlying net outflows from global emerging market equities were 200 million pounds, it said, as "healthy outperformance" of its equity funds helped soften the blow.

"Encouragingly, investor sentiment towards Asia and emerging markets recovered somewhat during the quarter," Chief Executive Martin Gilbert said in a statement.

"While the improvement in our underlying equity new business flows has been masked by a significant withdrawal by a single client, it is rewarding to see growing interest in our broader product range."

Aberdeen also said it had seen 3.3 billion pounds leave its recently acquired SWIP business in the quarter, although much of the outflow had been expected and included seasonal outflows from low margin liquidity funds.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Nishant Kumar and Huw Jones)

By Simon Jessop