World's largest publicly traded hedge fund manager sees little relief.

[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ]

London-based Man Group is manning its battle stations.  The world's largest publicly traded hedge fund manager has seen weak performance since the financial crisis result in chronic withdrawals by investors. 

Even with its strong first quarter showing in the global equity markets, investors withdrew $3.7 billion during the first 3 months of 2013.  The weakening bond markets hurt, as did the disruption to its investment strategies that were impacted by the large investor outflows.  To cover payouts, the firm will buy back almost $500 million of its own debt.  Net, net, assets under management fell to $55 billion - a decline of almost 54%. 

"This was a disappointing quarter from a flows perspective.  Investment performance is the lifeblood of our business and in time we expect good performance to translate into flows." -- Emmanuel Roman, newly minted CEO as of this year.

Mr. Roman's goal is to reinforce the firm’s stock price, which has fallen around 60% these past 2 years.  Several cost-saving strategies went into effect, including a capping of annual cash bonuses for top executives - set at no more than 250% of individuals’ salaries.

For further details, go to [Dealbook, 5/3/13].