Schroders says Q3 assets under management fall 4.9 pct

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - British fund manager Schroders said on Thursday that assets under management had fallen 4.9 percent in the three months to the end of September, hit by weak investment returns.

The firm said total assets were 294.8 billion pounds ($453.43 billion) at the end of the period, against 309.9 billion at the end of June.

That drop was due in large part to a 14.6 billion pounds loss in its investments, in a quarter where the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 7 percent.

Pretax profits over the nine months to end-September period, meanwhile, were up 21 percent to 438.9 million pounds, it said in a statement, evidence, Chief Executive Michael Dobson said, of the "resilience of our diversified business at a time of heightened market volatility".

($1 = 0.6502 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Sinead Cruise)