Ninety One cuts interim dividend as AuM fall 5%

Investment manager Ninety One posted a drop in interim profit on Wednesday and cut its interim dividend as assets under management fell amid "extremely challenging" market conditions.

In the six months to 30 September, pre-tax profit declined 6% to £104m. Closing assets under management were down 5% to £123.1bn and net outflows increased to £4.3bn from £3.2bn.

Basic earnings per share reduced by 5% to 8.9p and adjusted EPS was down 9% to 8.2p.

The interim dividend was cut to 5.9p a share from 6.5p in the same period a year earlier.

Founder and chief executive Hendrik du Toit said that rising interest rates and increased geopolitical uncertainty had contributed to continued investor caution.

He pointed out that while equity markets rose "on the surface", the rally was extremely narrow and largely restricted to a small number of large US technology companies.

"Equity markets have been driven by narrow sectoral and geographic performance. These factors have dampened investor appetite for emerging markets and public equities in general. We expect these conditions to remain for the rest of the financial year," he said.