Aberdeen has $13b in outflows as sovereigns pull cash

NEW YORK: Aberdeen Asset Management Plc reported 9.1 billion pounds ($13 billion) of net outflows in its fiscal first quarter amid waning emerging-market confidence and as sovereign-wealth funds withdrew money from global equities. The shares rose. Gross outflows in the three months through December totaled 20 billion pounds compared with 22.2 billion pounds in the previous period, the Scottish firm said in a statement on Wednesday. Flows "remain difficult" amid continued volatility as investors pulled a net 3.5 billion pounds from funds invested in global stocks. Aberdeen's shares gained as much as 2.2 percent and were trading at 237.3 pence at 08:02 a.m. in London. "We continue to contend with the structural imbalances of the global economy and the cyclical slowdown in emerging markets as well as the impact of falling oil and commodity prices," Chief Executive Officer Martin Gilbert, 60, said in the statement.