PROFITS surged 7.3% at Artemis Investment Management last year, as the Scottish fund manager benefited from surging demand for equity income products as savers were squeezed by rock-bottom bank rates.
The Edinburgh-based house posted a turnover of £85 million for 2012, a rise of 4.5% on the previous year.
Pre-tax profit, before members' remuneration and profit share, rose to £58.2m, some £4m higher than the previous year.
Chief operating officer Mark Murray said: "The increases were due to a combination of increased flows into the established product range and we are starting to see asset flows into the newer strategies."
Artemis, which has hitherto been best known for its performance in UK equities, has beefed up its global and European teams in recent years.
Former LV= Asset Management duo Mark Page and Laurent Millet were handed a European Opportunities fund to invest in continental stocks. Meanwhile, former Insight Investment staffer Alex Illingworth and Taube Hodson Stonex's Simon Edelsten took on a Global Select fund.
Mr Murray said there was rising demand for these products, despite their relatively short track records.
He added that Artemis was also seeing increasing enthusiasm for equity income products as investors looked for alternatives to the low interest rates on cash.
Artemis is seeing particularly strong demand for the Artemis Global Equity Income Fund, run by Jacob de Tusch-Lec, which has assets of £290.7m just three years after launch.
Meanwhile, its long-established Artemis Income Fund now has £5.9bn in its coffers.
Mr Murray said that rising stock markets during 2013 had also improved appetite for equities.
Assets under management at the house have climbed from £12.5 billion at the end of the financial year to £15.5bn now.
Artemis employs 130 people of whom 45 work in Scotland.
It is part-owned by US-based Affiliated Managers Group which received a £32m share of last year's profit.
Artemis was founded by four former Ivory & Sime managers in 1997. Its managers and Affiliated Managers Group paid $250,000 to acquire the firm from Benelux bank Fortis in 2010.
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