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Richard Oldfield, the incoming chief executive of Schroders, vowed to improve the asset manager’s “focus and execution” as the group warned on Tuesday that it faced outflows of about £10bn this quarter.
The announcement sent Schroders shares down more than 10 per cent in early trading, taking their decline this year to 25 per cent. Oldfield, the group’s chief financial officer, takes over from Peter Harrison as chief executive of the UK asset manager next week.
On a call with analysts on Tuesday, Oldfield said: “My initial priority is to focus on simplification, commercial discipline and flawless execution . . . we’re going to be thinking about how and where to build on those strong foundations we already have in place.”
Schroders said that its solutions business would face an outflow of about £8bn from its legacy Scottish Widows mandate while institutional clients intended to withdraw about £2bn.
The blows come as Schroders suffered £2.3bn of outflows in the three months to September, leaving its total assets under management at £777.4bn. Its joint ventures in China and India also suffered in the third quarter, recording outflows of £2.6bn as markets in Shanghai endured wild swings.
Oldfield faces pressure to turn around the company’s performance and cut costs. Under Harrison, Schroders sought to offset the decline of its traditional mutual funds business by pushing into fast-growing areas such as private markets and wealth management.