Ashmore Group has reported a 13 per cent fall in its assets under management to $51.1bn (£33bn) from $58.9bn at the end of June.
In its quarterly trading statement for the three months to September 30 the specialist emerging markets asset manager attributed the $7.8bn fall in assets to net outflows of approximately $4bn and negative investment performance of $3.8bn.
However, Ashmore noted the negative market sentiment towards certain emerging markets in the latter part of the quarter “has provided good opportunities for Ashmore’s value-based investment processes to acquire risk at attractive prices”.
In particular it has targeted high yield corporate credit, local currencies and selected external debt markets “where the underlying credits are sound but spreads have widened to attractive levels”.
The company stated the net outflows reflected “the typically quieter quarter combined with a small number of large institutional redemptions”. These redemptions were primarily in blended debt, external debt and local currency.
In terms of performance Ashmore noted most investment themes had experienced negative absolute investment performance, in particular in local currency. It acknowledged this was “impacted by US dollar strength, and this also affected absolute returns in blended debt”.
Mark Coombs, chief executive at Ashmore Group, added: “Concerns over global growth prospects affected sentiment and resulted in price weakness and greater volatility across global markets. However, this backdrop has provided good opportunities to add risk where prices have diverged from fundamentals, and certain investors are now acting upon the value apparent in the emerging markets and are increasing allocations.”
