Shares in SA’s largest asset manager Ninety One rose to their highest level in more than seven months after the company reported a slowdown in outflows, saying it is seeing early indications that demand is shifting towards its offering.
Ninety One Plc’s share price rose the most in more than five years on Wednesday, up 7.63% to R41.90.
This as the group reported a 4% increase in assets under management (AUM) to £130.8bn (R3.16-trillion), in the year to end-March.
Ninety One said the increase in AUM was due to the positive market and foreign exchange effect of £9.7bn, which outweighed net outflows.
Adjusted operating profit was 1% lower at £187.9m and headline earnings per share were down 7% to 17.2p. A final dividend of 6.8p per share was declared, taking the total dividend to 12.2p.
Ninety One founder and CEO Hendrik du Toit said the company regained positive flow momentum in the second half of the year under review.
“Business conditions have improved in the final quarter. These financial results reflect the strength of our business. While we expect the ongoing economic uncertainty and market volatility to persist, we are encouraged by early indications that demand is shifting towards our offering,” Du Toit said.
“We are committed to our relentless drive to build a better, more focused business. This motivates our top talent, and talent is key to the success of Ninety One.”
The group experienced net outflows of £4.9bn for the year, representing a “substantial improvement” on the prior year’s net outflows of £9.4bn.
Equities were the main driver of net outflows and were mostly from global and sustainable equities. That was followed by fixed- income net outflows from emerging-market local currency and blended strategies, as well as money market strategies and multi-asset net outflows, the group said.
The UK client group’s net outflows were driven by large clients rebalancing their portfolios, with reduced allocations to certain equity strategies (UK and sustainable equities).
Within the Americas client group, outflows were largely due to client restructurings but there was a return to net inflows from Latin American institutional clients compared with the prior year.
For the Africa client group, the second half saw some sizeable client wins into global equities, multi-asset and alternatives strategies.
The Asia Pacific client group saw increased demand by Asian clients into global and Asian equities, while the Europe client group’s positive second half was driven by fixed income and European and Asian equity strategies, it said.
Ninety One said the transaction with Sanlam remained on track. In November last year, it announced a proposal to acquire Sanlam Investment Management for about R5bn.
Update: June 3 2025
This story has been updated with new information.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.