SCHRODERS PLC LONDON (Reuters) - Schroders (>> Schroders plc), Britain's largest listed money manager, posted an 11 percent rise in first-half assets as currency gains caused by Britain's vote to leave the European Union helped offset larger than expected second-quarter fund outflows.
Asset managers across the globe have been roiled by market volatility in the first half, as a result of concerns around global growth, particularly in China, rising political risks, including Britain's EU vote, and concern about the impact of central bank monetary policies.
As a result, 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) was pulled from Schroders funds in the three months through June, lagging a consensus expectation for 1.5 billion pounds in outflows.
Flows also slowed in the first half into the firm's various products, including wealth management, to 700 million pounds versus 8.8 billion a year ago.
Despite that, total assets hit a forecast-beating record of 343.8 billion pounds, boosted by 28.5 billion pounds as a result of sterling weakness, mirroring the currency gains seen by rivals including Henderson Group (>> Henderson Group Plc), which also reported on Thursday.
"There was heightened market volatility throughout the period, particularly towards the end of June, following the result of the referendum," said Chief Executive Peter Harrison.
"We expect the current market environment to persist and this may have an impact on investor demand."
Shares in Schroders were down 0.5 percent by 0755 GMT in a flat FTSE 100 <.FTSE>.
The rise in assets helped underpin a forecast-beating pretax profit before exceptional items of 293.7 million pounds, compared with a company supplied consensus forecast for 286.5 million. The group said it would pay an interim dividend of 29 pence a share, in line with the year earlier.
Analysts remained broadly positive on the stock, with Exane analysts saying they expected to see "low single digit" upgrades to consensus expectations.
(Editing by Rachel Armstrong and David Holmes)
By Simon Jessop
