Perpetual to overhaul J O Hambro

Perpetual flagged its mission to revive the lacklustre performance of boutique J O Hambro Capital Management (JOHCM) and boost its assets to $60 billion by 2030.

The multi-boutique singled out JOHCM at a recent industry conference, saying restoring its "heritage strength is critical to our growth in global asset management."

Perpetual is giving JOHCM until the 2030 financial year to lift assets under management (AUM) to between $55 billion and $60 billion.

JOHCM ended March with nearly $31 billion in AUM, a 10.6% decline from the December quarter.

It lost $2.5 billion of net outflows in the last quarter due to negative currency and market movements. This is on top of the Global Opportunities strategy bleeding $1.3 billion, and the International and Global Select strategies losing a combined $0.7 billion. The UK Equity Income strategy also farewelled $0.2 billion.

JOHCM specialises in emerging markets and international equities. Compared to four years ago, it had $40 billion in AUM.

At present, Perpetual believes JOHCM has a strong brand in the home market but faces challenging flow patterns in its largest strategies due to investment performance, market sentiment and structural change.

In the near term, Perpetual wants it to have low-correlated, diversified solutions and a differentiated but scalable product range.

While JOHCM has strong appeal in core global markets, Perpetual aims to roll out "disciplined cost management practices that support operating leverage."

Should the sale of the wealth management business to Bain Capital finalise before the end of 2026, the group will comprise two units - asset management and corporate trust.

For asset management, Perpetual said it will be become a "true multi-boutique model with small, nimble boutiques that have established brands, long-term client relationships and market penetration in their core markets."

In addition to implementing a change program for JOHCM, Perpetual said it wants to capture sustained ETFs asset growth as investor demand structurally shifts and increase momentum in asset management's share of the simplification program, which was announced in 2024.