Investors pull £1.6bn from Ashmore funds amid ‘subdued’ risk appetite

Asset manager Ashmore Group has said cautious investors have pulled around two billion dollars (£1.6 billion) from its funds.

The emerging markets specialist blamed the higher outflows from its funds on “subdued” risk appetite from institutional investors.

The London-listed firm said it also saw investment losses of 400 million dollars (£336 million) for the three months to June.

It said that, coupled with its two billion dollars in net outflows, it therefore saw overall assets under management contract by 2.4 billion dollars (£2 billion) to 49.5 billion dollars (£41.6 billion).

Ashmore told shareholders that emerging markets returns have remained positive over the past year but that currently “investor risk appetite remains subdued and institutional decisions to reduce emerging markets exposure continue to drive net outflows”.

The market’s performance over the latest quarter was “broadly in line” with the previous quarter, while local currency bond returns were held back by a stronger US dollar, the company said.

Mark Coombs, chief executive of Ashmore, said: “Emerging markets have demonstrated resilience over the past few years, with effective monetary and fiscal policies underpinning superior GDP growth.

“Further growth is supported by structural economic reforms in many emerging countries.

“In contrast, the developed world faces numerous headwinds following a period of pro-cyclical fiscal expansion and a sharp increase in the cost of government debt.

“As the trajectories of emerging and developed countries continue to diverge, investor appetite for emerging markets exposure will improve and capital flows will follow, supporting higher risk-adjusted returns in emerging markets over the medium term.”

Shares in the company were down 2.8% in early trading on Friday.