The group's assets under management declined to $75.3bn over the previous quarter, following $3.5bn of net outflows. This came in spite of positive investment performance of $0.3bn.
The majority of net outflows came from the redemption of segregated mandates in blended debt and overlay/liquidity themes. Multi-strategy lost 15.2% of assets under management, while overlay/liquidity strategies lost 12.6%. Blended debt, the group's largest strategy by assets under management, lost around 3% overall.
Losses in Ashmore's two other major strategies – external and local currency debt – were more limited, at 2.9% and 1.7% respectively. Corporate debt was the only area to see a positive net inflow.
Mark Coombs, chief executive officer, Ashmore Group plc, said that the group continued to be affected by negative sentiment towards emerging markets after the announcement of QE tapering: "Market performance and, to some extent, investor behaviour during the quarter continued to be influenced by uncertainty surrounding US monetary policy and the heightened market volatility experienced since early May last year."
However, he believes that greater clarity over US monetary policy should improve sentiment towards emerging markets.
Ashmore has come under pressure as investors have exited emerging market bonds. Morningstar statistics show that local currency emerging market bonds saw the highest outflow of any sector in November of last year, dropping €3.1bn.
