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July 29 (Reuters) - British money manager Schroders
reported a 33% rise in first-half profits on Thursday, as strong
investor sentiment on the back of vaccinations and stimulus
measures pushed assets under management to a new high.
Schroders, which lifted its interim dividend by 6% to 37
pence a share, said pretax profit rose to 373.9 million pounds
($521.03 million) for the six months ended June 30, while it
booked in net new business of 17.9 billion pounds.
The company said total assets under management climbed 6% to
700.4 billion pounds, with strong demand for its higher margin
equity-focused mutual funds, especially from clients in the
United States and Continental Europe.
"Markets have benefited from a combination of low interest
rates, quantitative easing and a belief that inflationary
pressures are transitory," Schroders boss Peter Harrison said.
"If these pressures persist, or indeed the recovery in
economic growth disappoints, we would expect increased market
volatility."
Three other UK-listed asset managers - St James's Place
, Rathbone and Man Group - reported
billions of pounds in inflows earlier this week as household
savings jumped during lockdowns.
($1 = 0.7176 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; editing by Carolyn Cohn)