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Investing.com -- Ashmore (LON:ASHM) reported a $1.4 billion quarter-on-quarter increase in assets under management (AuM) during the fourth quarter, bringing total AuM to $47.6 billion as of June 30. The gain was driven by $2.2 billion of investment performance, partially offset by $0.8 billion of net outflows.
The company’s shares rose 1.2% by 08:05 GMT.
Fixed income AuM rose to $38.5 billion from $37.8 billion in the prior quarter, while equities saw a notable increase to $7.5 billion from $6.8 billion. Flows were positive in equities, flat in external debt and alternatives, and slightly negative across blended debt, local currency, and corporate debt themes.
Net flows improved compared to the previous quarter, with significantly lower redemptions despite continued geopolitical and trade-related uncertainty. The group also launched a new impact debt strategy and opened a new office during the quarter.
Ashmore highlighted continued outperformance across its strategies and noted that a greater proportion of its assets have outperformed benchmarks over one, three, and five years since the start of the calendar year.
The group also benefited from strong emerging markets (EMs) returns. Ashmore said EM indices rose 2% to 12% in the quarter, supported by U.S. dollar weakness and improving fundamentals.
“Emerging markets (EMs) continue to outperform developed world equity and bond markets,” said Ashmore CEO Mark Coombs, attributing this to the “ongoing weakness in the U.S. dollar.”
He added that investors are starting to “rebalance away from heavily overweight U.S. positions towards more attractively valued asset classes such as EM.”
Coombs said Ashmore’s product range and performance position the firm well as investor interest in emerging markets starts to return, noting that exchange-traded fund flows often precede broader institutional allocations.
Jefferies analysts said the reported $47.6 billion figure is "fully in line with expectations."
"Crucially, EM is starting to attract flows via ETFs, which, as management notes, has historically been a precursor to broader institutional behaviour," they noted.
The analysts added they expect minimal change to consensus estimates following this update.