The departure of star managers Jeremy Lang and William Pattisson in April has impacted on Liontrust Asset Management’s profits, which fell to just £0.5m for the six months to 30 September, down from £6.1m for same period in 2008.
However, assets under management stabilised albeit at much lower levels than last year. At the end of September, Liontrust's AUM had fallen to £1.3bn; one third of the level compared to the same period in 2008. The group confirmed this had fallen further to £1.2bn by 24 November this year.
Liontrust managed to maintain its interim dividend at 2.5p per share, helped by performance fee earnings of £2.2m, although they were £1.7m down on last year.
In his interim statement, chief executive Nigel Legge acknowledges the need to ‘rebuild Liontrust' after the departure of Lang and Pattisson.
"The six months to 30 September 2009 marked the first stage in the rebuilding of Liontrust," says Legge.
"The addition of a fixed income team and the recruitment of a global equities team have expanded our already strong fund management capability. This can be seen in the very good long-term performance delivered by all our fund management teams."
"We are well capitalised to rebuild Liontrust. We have no debt and hold net cash and financial assets of over £20m. This gives us the resources to continue expanding and diversifying our fund management teams into new asset classes while maintaining our focus on having strong investment processes."
Legge says the group plans to launch a number of funds in the coming months, in particular for its fixed income team acquired from Ilex Asset Management and its global equities teams.
"We have the resources to market our products more proactively to institutional, hedge fund, discretionary and retail buyers in the years to come," he adds.
