Magellan’s FUM falls yet again

Magellan’s funds under management (FUM) have fallen again, with the fund manager reporting a drop of around $800 million between the end of October and the end of November to $50.2 billion.

During a month that was marked by news that Hamish Douglass’ family had sold approximately 13 million of the fund manager’s shares, total net outflows increased to $2.5 billion, consisting of net retail outflows of $0.6 billion and net institutional outflows of $1.9 billion.

Institutional FUM was reported to be down from $30.5 billion in October to $29.6 billion in November, while retail FUM ticked up from $20.5 billion to $20.6 billion.

Global equity FUM fell $1.7 billion to $24.6 billion, while infrastructure equity FUM increased by $600 million to $16.8 billion and Australian equity FUM increased by $300 million to $8.8 billion.

November’s FUM decline came after Magellan recorded a slight increase a month earlier, from $50.9 billion at the end of September to $51.0 billion at the end of October.

Regarding the offloading of Magellan shares by a Douglass family entity, Hamish Douglass explained at the time that the sale was made for family diversification purposes.

“I have full confidence in the Magellan investment team, including the global equities team led by Nikki [Thomas] and Arvid [Streimann],” he said.

“Consistent with my confidence in the team, I have not sold any of our investments in any Magellan funds.”

In October, CEO David George said that Magellan will be a fund manager of a global scale once more with over $100 billion of FUM in the next five years.

Magellan’s FUM sat at $116.4 billion at the end of November last year, representing a fall of almost 57 per cent over the past 12 months.

Jon Bragg

Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.