Man Group’s assets under management fell by an estimated $5.6 billion in the first half of April as the market turmoil unleashed by President Donald Trump’s tariff plans impacted performance.
The London-listed money manager reported assets under management of $167 billion as at April 14, down from $172.6 billion at the end of the first quarter, according to a statement on April 17. Man Group’s shares fell as much as 3.77% in early London trading.
Trump’s sweeping tariffs, unveiled at the start of the second quarter, have roiled markets. The publicly traded hedge fund group, which offers a diversified range of investment products, provides an indication of how painful the market turmoil has been, particularly for certain quantitative strategies that follow market trends.
All of the four main computer-driven hedge funds run by Man Group lost money during the first quarter and worsened their decline in April as their models struggled to change direction quickly enough to avoid market routs. Multistrategy Man Strategies 1783 also gave up some of its gains.
The decline in Man Group’s assets in April is the latest evidence of the damage wrought on some in the hedge fund industry by the tariff induced turbulence. Alphadyne Asset Management lost hundreds of millions of dollars last week, worsening its decline for the month of April to 10%.
Tudor Investment trader Alexander Phillips lost about $140 million in April through earlier last week, while Eisler Capital portfolio manager Barry Piafsky and his team were stopped out from trading after they lost millions of dollars during the ongoing market selloff.
The market turmoil in April came after a first quarter in which Man Group netted $3.6 billion into its funds, the most in more than three-years and more than double company-compiled analysts’ estimates for $1.3 billion of inflows.
The hedge fund group’s inflows were all in long-only money pools with alternative funds getting no new cash, according to the statement.
Assets under management in the three months through March rose to $172.6 billion, also beating a forecast of $170.6 billion.
Both inflows and asset growth before the tariffs were announced reflect the benefits of Man Group’s diversified range of investment products from hedge funds and quantitative strategies to long-only money pools.
The surge in new money was partially offset by a challenging quarter for global markets that saw Man Group lose $1.1 billion in investment performance, led by its alternative range of money pools.
