Nearly $9bn leaves Perpetual

Nearly $9 billion of investor money exited Perpetual in the March quarter, leaving its total assets under management (AUM) at $221.2 billion.

The fund manager was hit hard by net outflows of $8.9 billion and negative currency movements of $0.9 billion, but marginally offset by market gains of $0.7 billion.

All its affiliates saw AUM shrink between 1-5% in the quarter. Barrow Hanley reported the biggest outflows of $3 billion, with AUM declining 3.7% quarter on quarter to $81.9 billion.

Pendal Asset Management's outflows were $1.7 billion. It ended with $42.5 billion for the period, down 4.9% compared to the December quarter.

Perpetual Asset Management's AUM of $21.3 billion was impacted by net outflows in Australian equities and multi-asset strategies, whilst fixed income strategies experienced net inflows in the quarter.

Trillium's AUM was down 9.2% to $8.9 billion thanks to negative market movements and net outflows of $0.3 billion. Meanwhile, TSW's AUM was 1% lower at $31.1 billion.

Overall, total AUM dropped by 4% from the $230.2 billion reported at the end of 2024.

On a brighter note, Perpetual's corporate trust business' total funds under administration (FUA) grew to $1.26 trillion, up 1.1% on the December quarter.

The wealth management unit's total FUA was $21 billion, up 2% on the prior quarter, driven by net inflows of $0.9 billion but offset partially by a $0.4 billion impact from negative market movements. Net inflows of $0.9 billion were mainly driven by a new institutional client win.

Perpetual chief executive and managing director Bernard Reilly said: "Our asset management business was impacted by outflows in the quarter, mainly in global and US equities and cash, due to a range of reasons including client mergers, clients reallocating or rebalancing their portfolios and continued underperformance in some strategies."

"Our headline outflow numbers include approximately A$2.5 billion in net outflows in cash within our Pendal boutique, mainly due to the end of a previously announced, low margin, short-term mandate won in 2024."

Perpetual is set to deliver $30 million in annualised cost savings by 30 June 2025 as part of its broader simplification program to deliver $70-$80 million in annualised cost savings by 30 June 2027.

"Across our boutiques, we did not see any significant de-risking from clients in the period to March 31 and group investment performance was robust with 62% of strategies outperforming over three years. That said, we are mindful of the evolving macro-economic environment post period end, and in particular, the impact of these external conditions on sentiment towards equities investments," he said.