Bluebay year profit slips 4 percent

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Bluebay Asset Management Plc recorded full year pretax profit that slipped slightly on Thursday against a backdrop of the credit market crisis.

Pretax profit in the year ended June 30 declined to 49.7 million pounds from 51.6 million last year.

'The start of the Group's financial year in July 2007 coincided with the onset of what has arguably become the most comprehensive credit market crisis that the world has seen since the 1930s. This gave rise to an extremely demanding backdrop for a specialist credit manager to operate against,' Hugh Willis, the chief executive, said in a statement.

The group expects total net inflows in 2009 to be similar to the $7.1 billion just reported, with $1.9 billion achieved in the first two months of the new financial year.

The company reported assets under management in June up 60 percent to $21.0 billion compared to $13.1 billion in the previous year.

(Reporting by Lorraine Turner; Editing by Paul Bolding) Keywords: BLUEBAY/ [e-mail] ak COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.