The volatility affecting emerging market assets didn’t hamper the ability of emerging market specialist Ashmore to grow its assets under management (AUM) in the year to 30 July.
The company, founded by British billionaire Mark Coombs, reported this morning (7 September) it had attracted $16.9bn (£13bn) of net inflows during the year, with investment performance boosting total assets under management to $73.9bn (£57.1bn).
Ashmore also recorded a pre-tax profit of £191m with operating revenues increasing by 11 per cent.
Most of the period covered by these results was before the beginning of the emerging market volatility and Ashmore reported that 73 per cent of its AUM outperformed its benchmark over one year.
Mr Coombs, in his role as Ashmore chief executive, said: "Ashmore has delivered a strong operating performance over the financial year, driven by continued investment outperformance, record inflows, an ongoing commitment to cost discipline and good cash generation.
"This performance reflects the effectiveness of Ashmore’s business model and the success of key strategic initiatives such as growing retail assets.
"While asset prices were more volatile in the final quarter of the financial year, this largely reflected nervousness about a small number of emerging countries with particular issues such as Turkey, with the market extrapolating these concerns across the broad and highly diverse emerging markets universe of more than 70 countries.
"This mispricing therefore presents another very appealing entry point for investors. The combination of attractive emerging markets valuations with Ashmore’s strong investment track record and underweight investor allocations means that the outlook remains positive."
david.thorpe@ft.com