LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Jupiter Fund Management reported net outflows of client cash jumped to 3.4 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) in the first half of 2024 as the exit of key fund managers continued to dent the company.
However, the company reported an increase in half-year profit and said it was seeing early signs of clients warming to investing in the UK after the country’s recent general election.
Shares in the company were up 8% in early trading.
Jupiter said most of the outflows were because of the planned departure of its star manager Ben Whitmore in the coming months to launch his own independent boutique, as well as the managers of the firm’s Chrysalis Investments Trust leaving.
Excluding the impact of these departures, net outflows over the period were about 200 million pounds, the firm said. Flows of client cash had been flat in the first-half of the prior year.
The outflows contributed to a dip in overall assets under management to 51.3 billion pounds, down 2% from 52.2 billion pounds at the end of 2023.
The company reported an 11% increase in statutory pre-tax profit to 38.7 million pounds, helped by a small decrease in costs, and announced a 3.2 pence dividend.
Jupiter CEO Matthew Beesley said that despite the outflows the company was “cautiously optimistic”.
“Markets have responded positively to the increased political stability in the UK that comes with the incoming government and if this improvement in sentiment is sustained, Jupiter is likely to be a strong beneficiary,” he said.
($1 = 0.7777 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers in London and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Christian Schmollinger)
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