The investment house has reported a slight drop in total assets under management.

Aberdeen Asset Management, the UK-listed firm operating in markets such as Asia as well as Europe, today reported that total assets under management fell slightly at the end of 2014, to £323.3 billion from £324.4 billion at 30 September last year.

Gross inflows were a little higher than the previous quarter, principally in equities. However, outflows also increased as the emerging market backdrop remained tough. This was particularly evident in December, as a weakening of investor sentiment to emerging markets saw a pick-up in outflows for the month, the firm said in a statement today.

Equities returned a small net inflow for the two months to November, continuing the improvement seen in the previous quarter. However, December saw higher outflows from emerging market equities. Both Asia-Pacific and global equities attracted net inflows for the quarter.

Fixed income had net outflows of £1.5 billion ($2.25 billion). Outflows came principally from lower margin strategies although emerging market debt experienced a drop off in demand as investors’ appetite for risk waned, the statement continued.

Within Aberdeen solutions, flows were again mixed with outflows principally from multi-asset and the anticipated level of structural outflow from the closed insurance book acquired with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership.

The property division remains stable, albeit there were some outflows in the quarter from the wind-down of the DEGI funds instigated over four years ago, the firm said.