Jupiter Fund Management : first-half assets boosted by market gains, outflows slow

LONDON (Reuters) - British money manager Jupiter Fund Management on Tuesday posted an 8% increase in assets under management, boosted by market gains, although it continued to see outflows of client cash.

At the end of July, assets under management were 45.9 billion pounds, up from 42.7 billion pounds at the end of December, helped by market and investment gains of 4.3 billion pounds. Net outflows were 1.1 billion pounds.

The majority of the firm's outflows, 700 million pounds, came from two of Jupiter's larger European equities funds following news that star fund manager Alexander Darwall was looking to launch his own company.

However, Jupiter said outflows from its Dynamic Bond Fund had begun to take in net new money after a tough 2018.

Andrew Formica, who took over as chief executive earlier this year, said Jupiter's core strengths had "helped drive a resilient first half performance in the face of challenging industry conditions".

A 16.3 million pounds slide in management fees during the period weighed on pretax profit, down 16% to 81.4 million pounds, although the company kept its interim dividend per share stable at 7.9 pence.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Sinead Cruise)

By Simon Jessop