GEM equities saw outflows of £0.6bn, a result of weaker investor sentiment and the capacity limits the group has imposed on its range of funds. Equities as a whole dipped from £124.3bn to £118bn, a fall of 5%.
The group also saw net outflows of £0.5 billion from global equities, largely due to the withdrawal of assets by a single investor. There were positive inflows into the group’s Asia Pacific and Japan equity products. Over the same period the MSCI World index rose 0.6%.
All other asset classes were stable. The group saw inflows to its emerging market debt and high yield bond strategies, in spite of the waning popularity of fixed income strategies. The most recent BoA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey found that a net 68% of asset allocators are underweight bonds, the greatest underweight position recorded since April 2006.
Alan Borrows, manager of the CF Miton Distribution fund, says that he is increasing his holding in Aberdeen Asset Management. He says that the group has seen its shares suffer from the downturn in sentiment towards emerging market equities, but adds: “The company has a strong global franchise and pays a secure 3.7% dividend yield which is likely to increase due to improved profit distributions from the company.”
Separately, Aberdeen Asset Management announced that it is to launch three new funds, two new bond funds – the Aberdeen Global – World Government Bond Fund and the Aberdeen Global – Frontier Markets Bond Fund, and a new property fund, the Aberdeen European Secondaries Real Estate fund.
The World Government Bond fund will offer a diversified portfolio of global sovereign fixed income securities, predominantly investment grade, aiming to find those bonds with the best prospects for capital appreciation, income and price stability. It will use a GDP-weighted benchmark, which should tilt the fund towards those countries offering a higher yield with lower public debt.
The fund will be managed by Aberdeen’s global macro team led by Jozsef Szabo and already holds $75m of seed money from an institutional investor.
The Aberdeen Global – Frontier Markets Bond Fund will invest in a range of frontier market bonds, primarily located in sub-Saharan Africa, central America and Asia. The fund will be managed by Aberdeen’s emerging markets debt team, led by Brett Diment.
The group also announced that it has received €151.5m in initial commitments for its Aberdeen European Secondaries Real Estate fund.
