Ashmore shares rise after interim profit jumps
Shares in emerging markets asset manager Ashmore jumped this morning after it announced profit had surged at the half-year stage.
Profit before tax jumped 42 per cent on strong inflows to hit £132.4m for the six months to 31 December.
Ashmore said assets under management increased 28 per cent year-on-year to $98.4bn (£76bn).
The company boosted its interim dividend five per cent to 4.8p off the back of the strong profit performance.
Ashmore shares rose more than four per cent to 576p today.
Chief executive Mark Coombs said: “Ashmore’s specialist focus on the diverse emerging markets, the strong client flow momentum in the first half of the financial year and ongoing client activity levels, mean Ashmore is well-positioned to continue to grow.”
The asset manager has exposure in China but finance head Tom Shippey said that the effect of crises such as the recent coronavirus outbreak tends to be overestimated by markets.
“Our investment committees are watching very closely what’s happening in markets and what the reaction to the virus outbreak is from a pricing point of view, but also the impact tends to be relatively short-lived.
“If you look back at SARS, obviously economic growth does come off a bit in the near term, but our experience is it does recover pretty quickly,” he said.
Peel Hunt analysts said: “We remain of the view that the stock is a core holding.”