By Mathieu Rosemain and Bertrand De Meyer
PARIS (Reuters) -Asset manager Amundi reported weaker-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday as margins came under pressure from lower net management fees partly due to a depreciation in the U.S. dollar, sending its shares down nearly 6% in early trading.
Adjusted net income over the April-to-June period fell 4.5% from a year earlier to 334 million euros ($386 million), below the 345 million euros expected on average by analysts polled by the company.
Net revenue fell 1% to 790 million euros, also below expectations.
Shares in Europe’s largest asset manager, which is controlled by French bank Credit Agricole, fell nearly 6% at market open and were down 4.3% by 0749 GMT.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said Amundi’s margins were hit by a decrease in net management fees, due to a weaker U.S. dollar, a greater share of institutional clients who pay lower fees, and inflows into lower-margin products like passive and fixed income funds.
Net inflows in the second quarter were 20.4 billion euros ($23.65 billion), bringing total assets under management to a new record of 2.27 trillion euros.
Amundi said institutional investors and third-party distributors poured money into both passive and active strategies, especially those focused on European markets, as clients seek to rebalance the allocations of their assets.
“What we saw a lot of during the first half of the year was, first and foremost, many European clients repatriating and diversifying their allocations,” CEO Valerie Baudson told reporters on a call.
“In particular, they repatriated a lot of money that had been invested outside Europe back to Europe. We also saw a lot of interest from American and Asian clients,” she said.
She added that she expected minimal impact on European economic growth from the framework trade agreement struck between the United States and the European Union.
($1 = 0.8625 euros)
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Bertrand de Meyer; Editing by Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
