Aberdeen Asset Management outperforms
2 Dec 08
Aberdeen Asset Management on Monday showed that it had outperformed a struggling fund management sector by reporting slightly higher profits before exceptionals of £95.1m, up from £94.3m last year
The company said in its full-year results that it had managed to increase its funds under management 17 per cent to £111.1 billion, largely through making acquisitions.
But its share price slipped slightly by 2.2 per cent to 88p as profits came in £800,000 below consensus expectations.
“Some of those forecasts were made a long time ago, and don’t reflect the current market position,” said Martin Gilbert CA, Aberdeen’s chief executive.
Mr Gilbert said he was very pleased at the results, but added the company would look to make £20m worth of savings. These will be achieved partly by relocating from Dublin to Luxembourg. “Next year will be tougher in terms of revenues,” he said. “All we can do to mitigate that is try and become more efficient.”
The company managed to boost its funds under management through acquiring other businesses in spite of net inflows of only £1 billion, down from £8.7 billion after £20.8 billion was withdrawn during the year.
This led to a 155 per cent rise in profits before exceptionals, but only a marginal move after such items were removed. The company said legal costs had suppressed the pre-exceptional profit figure for 2007.
Earnings per share rose 29 per cent to 4.52p, while the full-year dividend increased from 5.5p to 5.8p.