Aberdeen Asset Management, Europe’s third-largest listed fund house, saw its net revenue drop by 14% to £1,007.1m from £1,169m in the year to September. 

AuM rose to £312.1bn, an increase of 10% from £283.7bn in 2015. Equities (£89.1bn) and multi-asset classes (£89.9bn) predominantly contributed to this total, although these figures also benefitted from rising global indices.

“It’s to do with the £32.8bn outflows, such as from our higher margin equity products,” said James Thornley, Aberdeen’s head of corporate communications, commenting on this year’s decline. “These also include outflows from lower margin businesses, such as insurance mandates.”

Simon Troughton, Aberdeen’s chairman, said in a statement: “Equity net outflows have reduced to £13.6bn this year from £16.4bn in 2015, with much of the improvement being in the second half year.” 

Fixed income performance remains solid “albeit the continuing low yield environment is a difficult one in which to excel with more traditional products”.

Thornley stressed that emerging market sentiment had improved, with Aberdeen experiencing net inflows during the final quarter of our financial year.  

“However, since Donald Trump was elected investor sentiment has moved from positive as investors wait to see what a Trump presidency will mean,” he added. “There is a lot of rhetoric about protectionism – the question is whether that will play out.”

Troughton added: “Despite the recent blip, the returning interest in emerging markets is a positive.” 

Also on the positive side, he added that the acquisitions of FLAG Capital Management, Arden Asset Management, Advance Emerging Capital and Parmenion Capital Partners “have brought wider capabilities and resource to our alternatives business, as well as the opportunity to develop our digital distribution capacity to meet the future needs of our clients.”

Aberdeen has also seen increased interest in its diversified growth strategies and its overall solutions capabilities. 

It has received interest from investors in alternative asset classes, such as private equity, infrastructure or hedge funds and has launched products in this area.

One recent example from Aberdeen is its Alternative Diversified Equity Fund (AADE Fund), a €200m liquid equity market neutral fund that it launched on 24 November with a German institutional investor looking to diversify into hedge funds.