Our business

Strong long-term performance and our 20+ year track record are key to attracting and retaining these investors.

The defining objectives of alternative investments are:

• Absolute return - the pursuit of a positive return regardless of whether asset prices are rising or falling
• Low correlation with other asset classes such as equities and bonds

The 2008/9 financial year was an extremely difficult period for the alternative investment management industry, with the benchmark HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index down 15%. While this clearly represents a failure to deliver absolute return, alternative investments nevertheless outperformed equities, which were down nearly 40%.

While Man's results show that we are far from immune to market turbulence, the majority of our investors saw significant outperformance because of our weighting towards managed futures. AHL, our largest fund, was up 8% during the 2008/9 financial year.

Man's expertise lies in investment management, risk management, product structuring, global asset gathering and investor services. We earn fee income linked to our funds under management, and additional fees when these funds outperform. During 2009, we will reinforce our leadership in hedge fund investing with the launch of an integrated hedge fund management business to improve performance, adapt to changing investor demands and leverage our global scale.