Man Group weathers Q1 market storm with slight dip in assets

* Q1 assets dip $100 mln after tough quarter

* GLG hardest hit, strong AHL sales please analysts

* Numeric, FRM performance broadly flat

By Simon Jessop and Maiya Keidan

LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - British hedge fund manager Man (Swiss: MAN.SW - news) Group on Friday posted a slight drop in assets under management in the three months to the end of March, hit by the performance of GLG, its actively managed equity business.

Asset managers have faced a tough quarter after concerns around global growth hit many markets in January and February, before bouncing back in March, but analysts said Man had weathered the storm better than most.

The world's biggest asset manager BlackRock (NYSE: BLK - news) posted a 20 percent fall in profits on Thursday after a "tough" quarter.

London-based Man said its funds under management over the quarter were $78.6 billion, compared with $78.7 billion at the end of December. This was in line with forecasts, with net inflows of $500 million offset by $700 million in market losses.

Net (LSE: 0LN0.L - news) inflows into its AHL funds over the period were $1.3 billion, Man said in a statement.

Analysts were broadly positive about the figures, with Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) flagging strong sales of AHL products, particularly into the United States, as "far in excess" of its estimates.

Man said a fall in assets of $1.5 billion at its GLG unit was mostly the result of weaker performance in equity funds not able to profit from falling prices earlier in the quarter, when some equity markets posted double-digit losses.

Partially offsetting that, however, was a strong investment performance at the group's AHL unit, which uses a range of quantitative trading strategies and which added $800 million to funds under management over the period.

"Investment performance across our quantitative strategies and net inflows meant that group funds under management remained stable over a highly volatile quarter," Chief Executive Manny Roman said in the trading statement.

Investment performance at Man's fund-of-fund unit FRM and Numeric - acquired recently as part of a strategy to broaden the firm's product offering and expand into the United States - were both broadly flat over the quarter, it added.

Roman said the results showed the group's efforts to diversify were bearing fruit, but that market uncertainty remained "challenging" and uncertain risk appetite among investors could hit flows.

"Given the challenging market backdrop, we expect the stable AUM (assets under management) and positive flow trends reported by Man Group (LSE: EMG.L - news) in 1Q16 to reassure investors," Goldman said in its note to clients following the results. (Editing by Alexander Smith)