Aberdeen sees investors pulling funds on emerging market jitters

* Assets slide to 283.7 bln stg from 324.4 bln stg

* Profits up slightly to 491.6 mln stg

* Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) lead FTSE 100 lower, down 3.7 pct (Adds share reaction, analyst comment)

By Simon Jessop

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Aberdeen Asset Management (Other OTC: ABDNF - news) reported a 12.5 percent fall in assets after nervous investors pulled money out of its emerging market funds and said it expected further outflows, sending its shares lower on Monday.

Emerging markets have been roiled this year by concerns about global growth, particularly in China, and the likely impact of rising U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . interest rates, hitting shares in Aberdeen and peers such as Ashmore.

Assets at the end of September totalled 283.7 billion pounds ($426 billion), down from 324.4 billion pounds a year earlier, Aberdeen said, hit particularly by outflows of 16.4 billion pounds from its equity funds and a negative market move of 12.1 billion pounds.

"It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) 's tough times. We just need to wait for emerging markets to come back into fashion," Chief Executive Martin Gilbert said on a conference call with journalists.

"In the meantime, we're sitting there with a very strong balance sheet, generating cash, paying a rising dividend. So, I suppose people are being paid reasonably well to wait for what the upturn ... will bring."

Aberdeen shares led the FTSE 100 index of Britain's top companies lower, down 3.7 percent for a year-to-date loss of 25 percent that leaves them on course to post their biggest yearly fall since 2008.

Advising clients to sell the shares, analyst Paul McGinnis at Shore Capital said outside of a takeover approach, an emerging markets rally was the only thing likely to protect the stock from further near-term falls.

Gilbert said that, while the emerging market weakness "may have some way to run", the company's decision to broaden its product offering and expand into developed markets such as the United States had helped underpin a solid set of results.

In 2015, that strategy included the purchase of FLAG Capital Management and Arden Asset Management, which will boost assets in Aberdeen's alternatives unit, which invests in assets such as hedge funds, to more than 20 billion pounds.

Underlying pretax profit over the period was up slightly to 491.6 million pounds from 490.3 million pounds, helped by the integration of recent acquisitions. The dividend was up 8.3 percent to 19.5 pence a share.

($1 = 0.6653 pounds) (Editing by Sinead Cruise and Mark Potter)