F&C Asset Management suffered a dip in funds under management to £97.8bn for the year ended 31 December 2009, compared to the previous year's £98.6bn.
F&C also returned to profit, generating a pre-tax gain of £8.7m, compared with a loss of £67.3m in 2008.
Third-party mutual fund sales fell to £710m, down 31% from peak levels in 2008. However, the group says it generated £2.5bn of new institutional business, with outflows at their lowest level since 2004 at £4.8bn, a decrease on the previous year's £7.6bn.
Chief executive Alain Grisay says the strength of the sterling and the defensive stance of some of its portfolios impacted on assets under management.
"With a diversified asset base, F&C's assets under management are less exposed to equity markets than some of our peers. We were relatively defensively positioned during the sharp equity market declines in 2008, and thus were more limited in our participation in the equity recovery during 2009," he says.
"Over the year, the strengthening of sterling against the euro had an adverse impact on our assets under management, partially mitigating the recovery in market levels. At 31 December some 55% of our assets under management were in euro-denominated portfolios."
