Aberdeen Asset Management posted an 18% rise in interim profits yesterday, fuelled by a record £7.6bn inflow of new business, but the shares fell as investors took profits after recent gains.
Martin Gilbert, chief executive, said: "It is all expectation management with listed companies. We are trying to temper that a bit at the moment, but we are very pleased with the progress."
Gilbert, one of the sector's most spectacular dealmakers over the years, said that while he was still on the lookout for small acquisitions in markets where Aberdeen is under-represented, large-scale takeovers were off the agenda.
"The problem is that the consultants who give us all the business really don't like change," Gilbert commented. "We can only really do small infill acquisitions."
Gilbert cited Aberdeen's £61m purchase of Deutsche Asset Management's Australian fixed-income businesses in March as typical. He dismissed the idea Aberdeen might be stalking F&C Asset Management, whose shares rose in February after market talk Aberdeen might bid for it, saying it was "not something that would be interesting for us".
Gilbert also quashed analyst speculation the group may return surplus capital to shareholders following New Star Asset Management's recent £363m pay-out.
"More and more fund managers are using private equity-style techniques to improve shareholder returns but we have no plans to do so," he said, adding that Alternative Investment Market-listed New Star had specific financial opportunities which did not apply to other managers.
He added: "We are looking to do an innovative tier one issue of £300m, that will strengthen the balance sheet quite a bit as well ... our clients expect us to have a reasonably strong balance sheet, the days of having a lot of debt are over."
Aberdeen reported interim pre-tax profit of £43m, up from £36.8m, driven by net fund inflows of £7.6bn, up sharply from £3.6bn a year ago, and a new record for any six-month period. Assets under management stood at £80.4bn, up 9.8% from end-September 2006.
Gilbert said Aberdeen, in contrast to some competitors, was a net beneficiary of the growing trend for institutional investors to spread their assets among several specialist investors.
"We're gaining more in specialist mandates than we're losing in balanced mandates," he said.
He added the group, which last year opened new offices in Frankfurt and Tokyo, plans to move into Latin America next year, but in a "very small" way.
"Clients like to see you have got guys on the ground, they would prefer to give the money to someone who has some presence."
Aberdeen's shares, which recently hit a six-year high of 226p and slipped 6p to 214.25p yesterday, had out-performed the FTSE-250 index by more than 11% since the start of the year, and Katrina Preston, analyst at Bridgewell Securities, said: "Investors have got a bit spoilt with Aberdeen. They are so used to every piece of newsflow triggering an earnings upgrade, that when it is not forthcoming they feel a bit disappointed."
The interim dividend is 2.6p, up from 2p a year ago.
Martin Cross, analyst at Altium Securities, said: "Fund flows were ahead of my expectations, (while) profits and revenues were about in line ... Net inflows can continue to grow very substantially in the next year or so on the basis of the investment performance."
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