Stanley Fink, the outgoing CEO of Man Group, says he hopes his firm will grow to $100 billion – twice its current size -- over the next half decade. But some market observers are pointing to some early figures that may make that prediction appear a little too ambitious. Fink made his comment following reports of net income 36% up in the first half of 2006 and a net increase of nearly $7 billion assets under management, bring the total to $56.8 billion. He said the U.K.-based hedge giant had a “quite robust” stable of future business, yet some of the new offerings seem to be raising funds below expectations. For one, its Man MGS Access, a capital-guaranteed bond linked to 14 hedge funds chosen by Man Global Strategies, has raised only $175 million so far, a figure below similar Man products. Analysts, says Dow Jones Newswire, suggest that investors are being cautious after Man reported losses in many of its funds. In addition, performance at Man’s AHL fund has been wobbly this year (down 4% between April and September), as are flagship funds by Man Global (-3.2%) and fund of hedge funds Glenwood (-4.9%) over the same period. That is affecting some other products. For example, the Man AP Enhanced Series 3, which raises money for AHL and Man Global Strategies, took in $600 million – while Series 1 and 2 brought in $900 million. Analysts expect the recent poor performance will cut into sales over the next several months. Fink explained to Dow Jones Newswires that because of the rough patch hedge funds are going through, investors are being more cautious toward a new product.
