The world's largest publicly traded hedge fund group has seen record assets under management but has experienced a drop in performance fees.
The Man Group's latest results showed assets under management grew by 5.9 per cent to $151.7bn (£119bn).
Despite this, the company saw its performance fees dramatically fall in the first half of 2023 to less than $50mn, compared to around $400mn in the first half of 2022.
An analyst's note from Peel Hunt added: "For the years after 2023 our performance fees expectations are little changed. One point of note is that we now expect performance fee EPS to be close to zero for 2023E after Man reported $4mn at the 1H23 stage.
"The share price remains sensitive to movements in performance fees, and one reason for this is the role they play in determining the capacity for buybacks."
Man's share price reacted negatively to the half year results and last week fell by 7 per cent.
As well as the low performance fees, the company blamed the pause on buybacks.
It decided not to open a new buyback programme due to the performance fees and cash being invested in the purchase of US specialist credit fund Varagon Capital Partners, announced in July.
Peel Hunt said: "There was no reloading of the buyback programme, reflecting both lower performance fees and the upcoming $183mn cash payment due on the completion of the Varagon acquisition.
"However, Varagon is accretive to earnings, whilst the outlook for buybacks post 2023 remains positive in our view. Capital deployment remains a value driver."
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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