Man’s alternatives range drew $4.3 billion of positive investor flows during 2020.

Man Group (LON: EMG), the listed London-headquartered global hedge fund group, reported a strong set of numbers for 2020. Aggregate AUM moved up sharply to a record $123.6 billion as of end-December. Despite the pandemic, Man attracted net investor inflows of $1.8 billion, which reversed 2019’s outflows of $1.3 billion. (HedgeWeek)

An exceptional and challenging year

Luke Ellis, Chief Executive Officer of Man Group, said that Man delivered a strong set of financial results in a challenging environment, demonstrating both growth and resilience.

“Last year was an exceptionally difficult time for much of the world, with COVID-19 fundamentally changing our day-to-day lives and how businesses operated,” Ellis explained.

Yet the firm increased its management fee profits and dividend to shareholders and grew client assets to end the year at a new record high for funds under management.

Alternatives do well

Man’s alternative strategies include absolute return, total return, and multi-manager solutions. AUM grew to $77.2 billion by 31 December 2020, up sharply from the previous quarter’s $72.4 billion, and from 2019’s annual total of $71.5 billion.

• Absolute return strategies increased to $34 billion in 2020 from $30.5 billion in 2019.
• Total return strategies added $2 billion year-on-year, from $27 billion in 2019 to $29 billion last year. These include alternative risk premia, private markets, CLOs, and emerging market total return funds.
• Multi-manager solutions meanwhile rose from $14 billion to $14.2 billion.

On an aggregate basis, the group’s alternatives range generated $1.5 billion of investment performance and drew $4.3 billion of positive investor flows.

Performance of individual alternative strategies in 2020

• AHL Diversified, the systematic CTA strategy gained 11%
• GLG Global Multi-Credit Strategy advanced 8%
• AHL Alpha gained 7.9%
• GLG European Long/Short Fund, GLG Alpha Select Alternative, and AHL Target Risk each generated returns of more than 5%
• AHL Evolution was up about 4%
• GLG Global Emerging Markets Debt Total Return gained 3.5%
• FRM Diversified II, the multi-manager hedge fund was up 2.6%
• Alternative Risk Premia lost 10.6%
• AHL Dimension lost 8.5%

Man is the world’s largest listed hedge fund manager. For 2020, though pre-tax profits fell 42% year-on-year, it increased dividends for shareholders by 8%.

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