By Nishant Kumar
LONDON (Reuters) - Ashmore Group's (L:ASHM) profits fell sharply in the year to June on currency fluctuations and lower performance fees as the emerging-market-focused money manager battled volatile investment conditions in the first half of its financial year.
The company's profit before tax fell 34 percent or by 87.3 million pounds ($141.43 million) to 170.3 million pounds in the year to the end of June, it said in a statement on Thursday.
About 30 million pounds of the decrease in pretax profit was due to lower performance fees, while 46 million was as a result of the strength of sterling against the dollar.
The money manager has sought to benefit from emerging markets volatility, but the same conditions can also result in a short-term underperformance, Ashmore Group Chief Executive Mark Coombs said in the statement.
"The recovery in sentiment towards emerging markets in recent months has benefited positions taken during those more volatile periods over the course of the year," he said.
The company's assets under management (AUM) stood at $75 billion at the end of June, down from $77.4 billion a year ago, it said, adding that 81 percent of AUM outperformed benchmarks over a three-year period.
The money manager said it had cut total operating costs by 23 percent to 97.9 million pounds and proposed to pay a final dividend of 12 pence per share, giving a 2 percent increase for the full-year dividend of 16.45 pence.
Ashmore trades at 15.1 times its 12-months forward earnings estimate, about 8 percent above a five-year median figure, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed. Its shares have dropped about 14 percent so far this year, underperforming a 1.2 percent rise in the FTSE 100 index.
(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; editing by David Clarke and Jane Merriman)