Henderson says FY outflows mar market-fuelled 10 pct rise in assets

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Investment manager Henderson Group (Frankfurt: HDJ.F - news) on Thursday posted a 10 percent rise in total assets under management to 101 billion pounds ($126.39 billion) in 2016, after market gains more than offset demand from retail clients to pull money from its funds.

Henderson said the weakening demand was the result of a broad pullback from European assets from retail clients, although added that demand from institutional investors had improved "significantly" during the year to end-December.

Underlying profit before tax during the period was 212.7 million pounds, it said in a statement, down from 220 million pounds a year earlier.

Henderson said its planned $6 billion purchase of rival U.S. asset manager Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS - news) was on track to complete by end-May and it planned to pay a final dividend of 7.30 pence a share, for a total dividend of 10.5 pence. ($1 = 0.7991 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jessop)