- Impax’s AUM fell by about a quarter to £25.3bn in the quarter ending March
Impax Asset Management shares tumbled on Tuesday after the company warned its annual profits would be below market projections.
The downgrade comes after the fund manager’s assets under management plummeted by around a quarter to £25.3billion over the three months ending March.
Wealth management giant St. James’s Place said in December it would pull Impax’s mandate to manage its £5.2billion Sustainable and Responsible Equity fund.
Two months earlier, SJP decided to strip the firm’s co-management mandate for its £9.9billion Global Quality Unit Trust.
Shares in Impax were 15.5 per cent down at 127.4p by midday, making them one of the AIM All-Share Index’s ten biggest fallers.
The group’s shares have nosedived by about 70 per cent in the past year amid significant client withdrawals and short selling by the likes of JP Morgan and GLG Partners.
Forecast: Impax Asset Management shares tumbled on Tuesday after the company warned its annual profits would be below market projections
After also experiencing some account closures within its institutional channel, Impax decided to make 10 per cent of its staff redundant, equivalent to over 30 roles.
It said this would save the company more than £30million annually.
Ian Simm, chief executive of Impax, added that the firm had ‘experienced a challenging quarter in terms of net flows’.
He said: ‘Market conditions in the second half of FY25 remain highly uncertain. Given the fall in our AUM and the impact on global markets of an escalating trade war, we anticipate that full-year profits will be below market expectations.’
President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on US goods imports last week, which he believes will help spur a manufacturing renaissance in the US and shrink the country’s considerable trade deficit.
The measures included a 10 per cent rate on products from the UK, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, a 26 per cent levy on Indian imports, and a 49 per cent tax on Cambodian goods.
Since Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ speech, bank analysts have increased their estimates of a global recession happening this year, while stock markets from Europe to the US and Asia have suffered major drops.
The FTSE 100 and Nasdaq plunged more than 5 per cent last week, while the S&P 500 shrank by over 6 per cent, their worst weeks since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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