By Carolyn Cohn
LONDON (Reuters) -British asset manager abrdn has only limited exposure to Russian assets and has been cutting its position, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
Major fund managers and pension funds such as Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and Britain’s university pension fund have said they are pulling back from Russia following Western sanctions punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
abrdn, a major player in emerging markets, has around two billion pounds ($2.68 billion) of client money invested in Russia and Belarus, or less than half a percent of its 542 billion pounds in assets under management, chief executive Stephen Bird told a media call.
“We have acted to reduce our holdings in Russia and Belarus,” he said.
“We will not invest in Russia and Belarus for the foreseable future.”
Russia, once a darling of emerging markets in the BRICs cohort of Brazil, Russia, India and China, was falling out of favour long before the threat of war with Ukraine emerged in recent months.
International asset management investment in Russia has weakened in recent years and it has never recovered to levels seen before Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, according to Copley Fund Research, after investors suffered the pain of sanctions.
Man Group chief financial officer Antoine Forterre also said on Tuesday that the hedge fund’s exposure to Russia and Ukraine was “negligible” and that it had cut its investments there in recent weeks.
Bird said abrdn had not yet had to suspend any funds due to liquidity issues related to the invasion and sanctions.
JPMorgan and Danske Invest have suspended funds with significant exposure to Russian shares.
Ratings agency Fitch said in a report on Monday that 10 Russia-focused and emerging market funds with combined AUM of 4.2 billion euros ($4.71 billion) had suspended redemptions so far.
abrdn reported a 47% rise in 2021 operating profit and Man Group saw AUM rise a record 20% on Tuesday.
($1 = 0.7452 pounds)
($1 = 0.8916 euros)
(Editing by John O’Donnell & Simon Cameron-Moore)
