DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Invesco Ltd.'s (IVZ) fourth-quarter earnings rose 58% as the money manager's bottom line was again helped by its recent acquisition of Morgan Stanley's (MS) retail asset-management business. President and Chief Executive Martin L. Flanagan noted that the company's full-year results were "driven by strong investment performance, an improved market environment and the successful integration of Morgan Stanley's retail asset management business." Invesco's deal with Morgan Stanley, including the Van Kampen fund unit, has helped to bolster the company's bottom line of late. Still, the bank's results have been dinged by one-time items. Morgan Stanley in November sold a 6.7% stake in Invesco for $664 million in proceeds a few months after it acquired the shares. Invesco reported a profit of $175.2 million, or 37 cents a share, up from $110.9 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as the consolidation of joint ventures and third-party expenses, earnings rose to 44 cents from 30 cents. Revenue jumped 38% to $1.03 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast earnings of 40 cents on $1.04 billion in revenue. Operating margin fell to 19.3% from 21.5%. Average assets under management rose 36% to $616 million from a year earlier and climbed 5.6% from the prior quarter. Long-term net outflows were $17 billion, compared with $4.9 billion of net inflows in the prior quarter. Institutional money-market net outflows were $1.6 billion, down from $2.4 billion. The quarter also included a previously-announced, low-fee institutional passive mandate outflow of $18.6 billion. Shares closed at $23.77 and were inactive premarket. The stock has risen 9.6% the past year. -By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; nathan.becker@dowjones.com;
