Deal fails to stop funds flowing out of Gartmore

Clients have continued to withdraw funds from Gartmore, the troubled fund manager which is due to be taken over by its bigger peer Henderson.

Net outflows since the announcement of the takeover in mid-January total around £790m, "giving little comfort that redemptions have finished", according to analysts at Seymour Pierce.

Henderson's chief executive, Andrew Formica, was not worried by the figures, however. Henderson itself reported a 37 per cent rise in annual underlying pre-tax profits to £100.7m. The group's assets under management stood at £61.6bn at the end of last year, compared with £58.1bn at the end of 2009. The Anglo-Australian firm is paying £335m for Gartmore, and the deal is expected to be completed by the first week of April. Though details are yet to be confirmed, Gartmore is expected to shed around 200 jobs, or more than half of its workforce, as a result of the takeover.

The Henderson bid capped a dismal year for the UK firm, which began life as a listed company only in December 2009. The biggest blow was the departure of one of its star fund managers, Guillaume Rambourg, after a regulatory inquiry. Gartmore suffered a further shock last November when Mr Rambourg's high-profile colleague Roger Guy also quit the company.