Schroders first quarter profit more than halves on writedowns

LONDON (Reuters) - Fund firm Schroders (SDR.L) said on Thursday that first-quarter pretax profit more than halved to 42.2 million pounds after it wrote down 33.5 million pounds on investments.

The company, which a year ago made a profit of 93.2 million, said it took unrealised fair-value writedowns of 25.8 million pounds on fixed income securities and 7.7 million pounds on seed capital investments.

This was due to "lower equity markets and the dislocation in fixed income markets in the first quarter, particularly in March", it said in a statement.

"Although further writedowns cannot be ruled out if current market uncertainties persist, detailed review of our holdings leads us to expect a recovery in valuations over time."

Schroders also saw private equity profit fall to 2.4 million pounds from 19.9 million pounds a year ago due to lower realisations.

Funds under management at end-March fell to 130.6 billion pounds from 139.1 billion at end-December, the company said. It saw positive inflows in its retail business while institutional outflows fell during the first quarter.

Last month Schroders said it expects a tougher business environment this year due to continued market volatility.

(Reporting by Laurence Fletcher; Editing by Quentin Bryar)