LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Ashmore proposed an unchanged final dividend as the emerging markets fund manager reported a 1% increase in annual profit.
Pretax profit for the year to the end of June rose to £221.5m from £219.9m a year earlier as net revenue increased to £330.5m from £325m. Ashmore declared a final dividend of 12.10p, the same as the year earlier, taking the final payout to 16.90p - up 2%.

The FTSE 250 company said profit reflected improved operating performance offset by mark-to-market losses on seed capital investments. Adjusted operating costs fell 5% to £105.9m.

Assets under management fell 9% to $83.6bn (£65bn) as market declines reduced assets by $8.1bn and net inflows were unchanged. Ashmore said the value of its investments was hit in the third quarter by the sell-off caused by the Covid-19 crisis but that it was outperforming the market as valuations revive.

Mark Coombs, Ashmore's chief executive, said: "Ashmore has delivered a solid operational and financial performance over the past year, against a backdrop of significant market dislocation in the third quarter as a result of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. The Group's business model, based on a consistent global operating platform, has proven its resilience in this challenging period and, after the initial negative impact in Q3, the investment processes are delivering outperformance as markets recover and client flows have continued to stabilise."

Coombs said trends in market performance, Ashmore's outperformance and stabilising client flows had continued over the summer. He said the recovery in emerging markets assets had further to go to return to fair value. But he predicted worsening economic fundamentals in developed markets would make investors averse to risk for some time.

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