Man Group, the world’s largest listed hedge fund, saw assets jump another $9 billion to $176 billion in the last three months as investors embraced its wide-ranging strategy – which largely involves avoiding London shares.
While listed in London itself, Man probably has less than 5% of its assets in its home market, with a bias towards US stocks.
Led by Robyn Grew, the former Lehman Brothers banker once dubbed a “force of nature”, saw assets in the three months to March rise from $167 billion to $176 billion.
It declines to be specific about how much it has in London stocks. Many large firms use the MSCI global index as a benchmark, which gives a 3.8% weighting to London. Man is though to have a slightly higher proportion of London stocks in its portfolio than that.
Controversy has raged lately about why UK shares are undervalued compared to those in the US.
Big companies have either been sold and disappeared from the stock market or moved their stock listing to New York in search of higher valuations.
Man Group shares today fell 13p to 25pp, which values the business at £3 billion. They are up 29% in the last year.
The group won’t discuss whether it is “overweight” or underweight in UK shares, but notes it has several UK focussed funds, which include UK Absolute Value and UK Income.
The statement said: “Our clients and the millions of retirees and savers they represent are at the heart of everything we do. We form deep and long-lasting relationships and create tailored solutions to help meet their unique needs. We recognise that responsible investing is intrinsically linked to our fiduciary duty to our clients, and we integrate this approach broadly across the firm.”
Its investment rose in value by 9.8% in the quarter.
Man did see $1.6 billion of outflows as clients yanked money out in search of better returns.
Jefferies said in a note: "Occasional roadbumps are not unexpected at Man, but the fact that AUM — incl. Absolute Return, driven by strong performance and despite the outflows — is at record highs demonstrates the enduring and more consistent growth in management fee profitability.”
