UK's Ashmore misses profit forecast even as investors boost emerging-market allocations (updated)
UPDATE 2-UK's Ashmore misses profit forecast even as investors boost emerging-market allocations Adds shares, CFO comments
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - British asset manager Ashmore ASHM.L reported a 17% jump in annual profit on Monday but narrowly missed analyst forecasts, even as investor demand for emerging-market assets increased amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.
Ashmore's shares were last down 1.2%. The stock had gained 24% so far this year ahead of the results.
Emerging markets have broadly rallied over the past couple of years, and Ashmore said it was well placed to win market share as investors diversified portfolios and reduced exposure to the U.S. market.
"We're beginning to see early signs of the U.S. coming back and looking to address their overweight positions to their home market," Ashmore's Chief Financial Officer, Tom Shippey, told Reuters.
The company posted pretax profit of £126.9 million ($171.5 million), below the company-compiled analyst estimate of £128.2 million.
Shippey said analysts may have underestimated the extent to which gains from seed capital investments had been reinvested in the business.
Ashmore attracted $2.7 billion of net inflows in the year to the end of June, while assets under management jumped 13% to $54 billion. The figures were first reported in a trading update in July.
The company said growth was supported by the expansion of its local office network across emerging markets, with Colombia, Indonesia and India making particularly strong contributions to asset growth.
(Reporting by Ankita Bora and Simone Lobo in Bengaluru and Iain Withers in London. Editing by Mark Potter)
((Simone.Lobo@thomsonreuters.com, +919920570373))