British hedge fund Man Group says first quarter assets up 10 percent

By Maiya Keidan LONDON (Reuters) - British hedge fund firm Man Group said on Thursday that net inflows, positive market moves and flows related to a recent acquisition helped funds under management rise 10 percent in the first quarter. Total assets under management at the end of March were $88.7 billion (£69.45 billion), up from $80.9 billion at the end of December, the world's largest listed hedge fund said in a statement. "We came into the year with a good pipeline of interest from clients, and that has resulted in net inflows of $3 billion in the first three months," said Luke Ellis, Man Group Chief Executive. Man's long-only funds, which aim to profit when markets rise, and its fund of funds business, FRM, took in the bulk of new assets, with net flows of $1.4 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively. Positive investment performance added a further $2.2 billion, with long-only strategies contributing $1.9 billion and its alternatives strategies $400 million. The completed acquisition of U.S. and Europe-based real asset manager Aalto, meanwhile, added $1.8 billion. (Reporting by Maiya Keidan; editing by Simon Jessop)