RE: .14 Nov 2019 22:47
Invesco bleeds $1bn a week as it tops worst-selling league table
Atlanta-based group hit by moves away from active managers and weak UK performance
Martin Flanagan has been Invesco's chief executive since 2005 © Bloomberg
November 10, 2019 11:41 am by Owen Walker
Invesco’s core range of investment funds have bled more than $1bn a week over the past 12 months, placing the Atlanta-based group at the top of the 2019 rankings of the worst-selling global asset managers.
Outflows are expected to continue in the wake of Morningstar’s decision to downgrade two of Invesco’s best-known UK funds, as retail investors respond to such moves by withdrawing their cash.
“Outflows have been terrible,” said Brennan Hawken, a senior analyst at UBS, the Swiss bank. “It’s a combination of a few factors that have led to profound pressure on the business — there is no getting around that.”
Invesco, which manages $1.2tn, has been simultaneously hit by moves away from active managers in the US and a lack of confidence among UK investors due to Brexit uncertainty. The group’s $5.7bn acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, which concluded in May, has also prompted client desertions.
The group’s share price, which peaked at $50.60 in 2000, has dropped more than half since the start of 2018 to $17.75. Martin Flanagan is one of the longest serving chief executives in the industry having taken the top job at Invesco in 2005.
Invesco suffered $54bn of net outflows from its mutual funds in the 12 months ended September, excluding its low-fee exchange traded fund business, according to Morningstar. The next worst-selling managers, Natixis of France and Franklin Templeton of the US, bled $40bn and $32bn, respectively.
Even after including Invesco’s ETF range — which has grown as the group has bought specialist providers — the company still had the biggest global net outflows of $40.6bn.
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