Man Group Thursday reported a 43% decline in full-year pretax profit for 2009 and said it was combining its three funds-of-funds products into a single business to improve transparency and risk management.

In its preclose trading statement, the world's largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager said that estimated profit before tax and exceptional items for the year ending March 31, 2009, was $1.2bn (€884m), down from $2.1bn last year.