Ashmore Group's assets under management fell 10.7% to $63.7 billion over the three months ended Dec. 31.
In a financial update Tuesday, the emerging markets manager revealed outflows across all investment strategies. It attributed the decline in assets under management to a negative investment performance resulting in a $2.8 billion loss, net outflows of $4.2 billion and the disposal of the firm's interest in a Chinese real estate joint venture. That disposal reduced Ashmore's alternatives assets under management by $600 million.
Negative investment performance reflected a sharp sell-off in markets in early December, the firm said in a statement accompanying the financial update, which it said “particularly affected local currency markets.” The weakest performance was in local currency and blended debt themes. Assets under management in those asset classes fell 8.2% to $15.7 billion, and 13% to $18 billion, respectively. External debt, corporate debt and multistrategy also saw negative investment performance, said the statement, while equities, alternatives, and overlay and liquidity strategies were flat.
Overall, AUM in alternatives strategies fell 41% to $1.3 billion. That strategy was the hardest hit. “Capital was returned as planned to investors in the alternatives theme,” the statement said.
Equity assets decreased 17.3% to $4.3 billion, while multistrategy was down 9.1% to $2 billion. External debt AUM decreased 6.8% to $12.4 billion, and corporate debt was down 6.3% to $7.4 billion. Overlay and liquidity was down 3.7% to $2.6 billion.
“Weaker commodity prices, U.S. dollar strength and increased price volatility impacted upon emerging markets during the quarter, although the diverse range of return opportunities in the asset class continued to show through,” said Mark Coombs, CEO of Ashmore Group, in the update. “While asset prices have fallen, uncertainty over the timing and pace of Federal Reserve rate increases is likely to weigh on sentiment in the near term.”
Ashmore did not disclose investment performance figures by strategy. A spokeswoman for Ashmore said the actual figures will be announced in the firm's half-year results statement, published Feb. 24.
