Man Group's 'robots' cushion the blow of global stocks rout

Robots salvaged the world’s biggest-listed hedge fund Man Group last quarter after the firm’s human stock-pickers were overawed by a global stock-market rout — a fate which also hurt rival fund manager Ashmore.

Man’s computer-driven quant hedge funds, led by a programme called AHL, made $1.2 billion (£774.6 million) last quarter, but its army of hands-on traders reported gloomier numbers after stock markets spiralled out of control in August.

The company, which started life as an 18th-century rum supplier to the Royal Navy, saw assets fall to $76.8 billion from $78.8 billion for the three months ending September 30 despite luring a net $1.4 billion from investors’ pockets.

“Despite the extreme market movements in late August impacting absolute performance across our long-only strategies, we have seen good relative performance across the majority of our strategies for the year to date,” chief executive Manny Roman said.

Problem spots included long-only funds run by recently acquired Boston-based manager Numeric and similar funds managed by fund unit GLG, which both reported negative performance.