By Nishant Kumar
LONDON (Reuters) - Jupiter Fund Management (L:JUP) said assets under management (AuM) fell in the third quarter after the sale of a unit, while the pace of new money entering its funds also slowed.
AuM dropped to 31.7 billion pounds in the September quarter from 33.1 billion at the end of June, it said in a statement, after 2.2 billion pounds in private clients left the company after the sale of its private client and charities operations to a unit of Rathbones (L:RAT).
Clients also pulled out 50 million pounds after the money manager said it planned to shut its cash and global energy unit trusts in the fourth quarter.
The pace of net inflows into its mutual funds fell to 231 million pounds in the September quarter from 410 million pounds three months earlier, and 278 billion pounds in the same quarter last year. Year-to-date inflows stood at 1.1 billion pounds, it said in a statement on Friday.
"This has been a busy period for Jupiter with the completion of the sale of its private client operations, an important strategic step which allows us to increase our focus on our mutual fund franchise," chief executive Maarten Slendebroek said in the statement.
"This part of the business continues to be the main driver of growth," he said.
Jupiter completed the sale to Rathbones in September and said it intends to distribute an estimated net proceeds of about 22 million pounds as a special dividend after the 2014 results.
(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; editing by Simon Jessop)