UPDATE 1-Janus Capital net falls 44 pct on lower fees

July 26 (Reuters) - Asset manager Janus Capital Group Inc on Thursday said second-quarter net income fell 44 percent as fees plunged.

The company's new fee structure, fully implemented in the first quarter, makes the fees it earns more dependent on the performance of its funds.

But its well-known equity funds have lagged. At June 30 just 18 percent of its fundamental equity mutual fund assets ranked in the top half of their Lipper categories over three years, Janus said. Its strong-performing bond funds are too small to offset that record.

The performance troubles also led to outflows of investor funds in the quarter.

The Denver-based company reported net income of $23.4 million, or 13 cents per share, down from $41.9 million, or 23 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S on average had expected 14 cents a share.

Revenue fell to $206 million from $264 million.

Net outflows were $3.9 billion in the quarter. Coupled with market depreciation of $7.6 billion, assets under management fell to $152.4 billion at June 30 from $164 billion at March 31 and $169.8 billion at June 30, 2011.

"It looks pretty messy," said Sandler O'Neill analyst Michael Kim, who had expected outflows of $2 billion.

He had expected the company to earn 12 cents a share, but said the higher figure Janus reported was driven by a lower tax rate, not by operations. "I would characterize it as a low-quality beat to our estimate," he said.