Record Assets Fall In Second Quarter On Mandate Terminations

LONDON (Alliance News) - Record PLC said Friday its assets under management equivalent decreased slightly in the second quarter due to a fall in its Passive Hedging portfolio.

Shares in Record were down 11% Friday morning at 31.48 pence each.

The currency manager's assets under management equivalent stood at USD61.8 billion at the end of September, down from USD61.9 billion at the start of the quarter.

Two of the company's mandates in its Passive Hedging portfolio were terminated in the period, accounting for a USD2.5 billion loss.

"We continue to invest in enhancing both our client service levels and product offerings," said Chief Executive James Wood-Collins.

"Our commitment to deliver a premium service, including best execution and full price transparency to clients, was strengthened during the period through the engagement of New Change FX, an independent provider of foreign exchange data."

Record ended the three months to September with 66 clients, up from the 64 clients the company had at the beginning of the quarter.

Stock market movements contributed a USD100 million gain the quarter. Exchange rate movements, in non-US dollar conversion, as well as the Currency for Return mandate contributed USD400 million.

Wood-Collins added: "We extended our licensing relationship with WisdomTree Asset Management during the quarter to provide currency signals in connection with a new range of models-based active exchange-traded funds. This includes the development of a new approach to emerging market currency hedging which provides an innovative way to manage this currency risk and which we are confident can be applied in a broad number of contexts.

"We are seeing an encouraging range of new business opportunities across products and geographies, although this has to be balanced against continued competition and fee pressure in passive hedging in particular."

The firm's fee rates remained broadly unchanged in the quarter and did not earn any performance fees.

Record