French asset manager Amundi posts Q3 outflows of $13 billion

By Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) -Amundi posted net outflows of 12.9 billion euros ($12.86 billion) in the third quarter, the French asset manager said on Friday, hurt by weak markets and concern about the economic outlook following the war in Ukraine.

The figure was much worse than consensus forecasts of 1 billion euros in outflows, according to KBW analysts.

The money manager reported assets under management at end-Sept of 1.9 trillion euros, down 2% in the last three months.

Asset managers benefited from government and central bank stimulus and demand from pent-up savings during the earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the war in Ukraine has hit markets and pushed up the cost of living, crimping asset volumes.

We think our clients’ risk aversion will persist into the next quarter, as long as macro-economic uncertainties last,” CEO Valerie Baudson told a media call.

Amundi’s shares fell 1.5% early on Friday. KBW analysts called the results a “mixed bag”, though they reiterated their “outperform” rating on the stock.

German asset manager DWS this week recorded steady assets under management of 833 billion euros in the third quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter.

Amundi’s quarterly adjusted net income rose 4.7% on the quarter to 282 million euros, however, helped by cost-cutting and strong management fees, it said in a trading statement.

Major fund managers’ use of so-called liability-driven investments (LDI), involving high amounts of borrowing, caused a liquidity crisis for British pension funds last month, forcing the Bank of England to intervene to stabilise UK government bond markets.

Amundi does not offer such products, Baudson said.

We have nothing similar to LDI anywhere in the world, it’s not an issue for us.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Matthieu Prothard in Paris; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)