What: The share price of wealth manager AMP Limited (ASX: AMP) is 0.5% higher on Monday, following the lead of the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) which has bucked the 'Brexit' scare to rally 0.6% by the early afternoon.
The performance of companies exposed to the United Kingdom (UK) economy hasn't been so fortunate however, with many experiencing sharp share price drops.
Leading the decliners amongst the S&P/ASX 200 today is UK-based fund manager Henderson Group plc (ASX: HGG) which has fallen around 13%.
Henderson is a global asset manager which was founded in 1934 and acquired by AMP in 1998. The acquisition proved short-lived for AMP with a demerger of the two businesses occurring in 2003. Since 2003, Henderson has traded as a separate dual-listed company on the ASX and the London Stock Exchange.
So What: While AMP is a diversified financial services provider with operations spanning funds management, financial planning and insurance, Henderson is a more traditional funds management business.
The divestment made sense given the lack of synergies between the two companies and the share price performance of Henderson since demerger is testament to the benefits of the business being on a stand-alone basis…
Henderson's share price has gained 320% since January 2004, while AMP's share price is up just 3.5%. In comparison, the index has climbed 57.5%.
Now What: The long term share price outperformance of Henderson Group thanks to the demerger, is arguably a telling sign of the quality and growth profile of this leading global asset manager.
The near term difficulties resulting from a potential UK exit from the European Union are complex and hard to accurately evaluate for Henderson's operations. However the current share price weakness could well turn out to be an attractive long-term buying opportunity.
