Risk-hungry punters have sunk so much cash into equities recently that first-half profits at Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) smashed City forecasts and propelled shares in the fund manager to an all-time high. Underlying pre-tax profit rocketed over a third to £222.8m and analysts at JPMorgan have upgraded their full-year underlying EPS estimate by 9 per cent to 30.9p (from 22.6p in 2012). Even that, they say, may be too cautious.
Funds run by Aberdeen attracted £24.6bn of new money in the period and net inflows of £4.4bn. With global stock markets sharply higher and a big currency benefit, too, assets under management have risen 13 per cent since the September year-end to £212.3bn. An extra £6m of performance fees helped the top line and increasingly popular equities and pooled funds helped grow net management fee revenue margin by 390 basis points to 49 per cent. Of the £7.8bn net flow into shares, over half went into Asia Pacific and the rest into global emerging markets. In fact, Aberdeen has started charging an upfront fee to cool demand and avoid potential liquidity issues. It certainly worked in March when inflows dropped sharply. Income seekers will also be pleased to hear management remains committed to returning excess cash once it has reached a "comfortable" level of headroom over its required regulatory capital.
ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT (ADN) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 456.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £5.47bn | |
| TOUCH: | 456.3-456.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 458p | Low: 233p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.9% | PE RATIO: | 20 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 97p* | NET CASH: | £638.9m | |
| Half-year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 413 | 124 | 8.48 | 4.4 |
| 2013 | 516 | 188 | 12.8 | 6.0 |
| % change | +25 | +52 | +51 | +36 |
Ex-div: 8 May Payment: 13 Jun *Includes intangible assets of £973m, or 81p a share | ||||
