F&C Asset Management, the UK fund manager, has cast doubt on a key profits target in the wake of the markets downturn and the decision by its majority owner Friends Provident to consider selling off its 52 per cent stake.

F&C said it could no longer be definite about the timing of its target, to increase earnings per share by 50 per cent by next year, in the light of the uncertainty created by Friends Provident’s move.

F&C said it was still committed to its growth ambitions, set out in 2006. But the lack of clarity about its longterm ownership and ongoing market turmoil was making clients and consultants nervous about allocating new business.

Alain Grisay, the chief executive, said: “We were under a regulatory obligation to make the statement we made.”

F&C was technically in an offer period, he said, after Friends Provident said that wealth management was no longer core to its business.

Under Takeover Panel rules, F&C is not able to make profits forecasts and so had to clarify its position, Mr Grisay said.

Mr Grisay would not be drawn on whether he favoured buying the stake from Friends, arranging a share sale to strategic investors or pursuing a full management buyout and delisting from the stock market.

At the end of a wholesale strategic review begun late last year, Friends said in January that it would consider options for the stake, which has been valued at about £700 million to £800 million.

“It is clearly in everyone’s interests for us to make a decision, but we want the decision to be the right one. We don’t want to botch the job,” Mr Grisay said.

He said the presence of Lazard and Lexicon Partners as advisers to F&C showed that it was serious. He indicated that more constructive talks could begin now that F&C had published its full-year profits.

Doubts over the target failed to overshadow a strong set of figures from F&C, which posted pre-tax profits of £25.9 million for the year to the end of December. Last year, after losing a rash of management contracts, F&C made losses of £30.5 million.

Revenues rose to £264.5 million from £248.2 million despite a drop in assets under management to £103.6 billion from £104.1 billion.

Performance fees surge 119 per cent to £20.8 million. F&C shares were 1.25p higher, up 0.72 per cent at 176p.

Mr Grisay said F&C had “marked a cornerstone” but completing the first year of a three-year turnaround plan. He unveiled the next phase of F&C’s strategy, an international sales and distribution drive that has brought in distribution agreements in Italy, Spain, Russia and China.

Mr Grisay also said F&C was “actively exploring” setting up in Asia and the Middle East.

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