Man Group sought to shake off fears of a tsunami of redemptions in the hedge-fund industry, saying its more conservative rich private investors are keeping the faith.

Man, the FTSE 100 company and London's biggest hedge-fund group, said new sales of investment products, especially in Asia Pacific markets, continue to outpace client withdrawals even if the value of Man's funds under management have fallen during the financial crisis.

"At times of market stress our conservative product range with its focus on investment styles with low correlation to equity and bond markets has particular appeal to investors," said chief executive Peter Clarke.

"Strong sales across this period of extraordinary market turbulence demonstrates the value of our investment approach and the power of our wide-reaching sales network."

Man says it is attractive to more risk-averse hedge fund investors as many of its products carry long term, 10 to 12-year, maturities with more than a third guaranteeing a return of the original amount invested at maturity.

It said today that new sales in the six months to the end of September have come in at around $10 billion (£7.9 billion), 25% higher than in the same half-year period in 2007.

Redemptions, however, remained at similar levels to last year, totalling $5.9 billion with a little over half withdrawn by private clients, taking the net new inflows to $4.1 billion.

Funds under management, however, slid from $74.6 billion to $70.3 billion.