NinetyOne reports £300m outflows on investor 'risk off' approach

Wealth manager Ninety One recorded net first-half outflows of £300m after losing some large institutional mandates and a cautious investor approach during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company, spun out of Investec, on Tuesday posted a 3% rise in first-half profit £94.8m as revenue slipped 1% to £297.3m. It also declared an interim dividend of 5.9p a share.

Assets under management increased 15% to £119.0 billion, though average AUM decreased by 3%.

“Although aggregate investment performance has improved, flows were impacted by a few large mandate losses relating to past performance,” said chief executive Hendrik du Toit.

“The initial 'risk-off' approach from clients in the advisor channel and lower-than-usual levels of pipeline visibility in parts of the institutional market affected new business momentum.”

“We are in a better place than at the beginning of the reporting period in terms of performance and pipeline visibility, but we expect flows to remain performance sensitive for the near-term.”