Man Group is to buy Aalto Invest Holding, the property manager, as the world’s largest listed hedge fund continues to try and reduce it reliance on the performance fees of AHL, its flagship fund.
The hedge fund, which posted net inflows of $1.3bn in the three months to the end September to halt a year of declining assets, said the deal will complete in January 2017 and will add a further $1.7bn of assets for the company.
Luke Ellis, chief executive officer of Man, said:
In a difficult market environment, we are pleased to report a $4.3bn increase in funds under management in the quarter driven by a positive investment movement of $2.5bn and net flows of $1.3bn.
Man Group also said it would buy back up to $100m-worth of shares and will “continue to execute share repurchases when advantageous”.
Citigroup downgraded Man from “buy” to “sell” in May on concerns about AHL, the trend-chasing funds that make up about a quarter of its assets under management and are estimated to provide more than half of the group’s earnings.
Man’s share price has fallen from 175p to 110p since the start of the year, and fell almost 3 per cent in yesterday’s trading.