UK – Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) remains the single-largest manager of UK pension assets, ahead of Insight Investment Management and BlackRock, according to IPE's annual survey of UK institutional managers.

The three accounted for over €1trn of the €2.5trn of UK institutional assets managed by the 100 largest companies – and nearly two-thirds of the €1.5bn held by the top 10 – but with stark differences in the volume of pension assets under management.

Whereas 79% of LGIM's €460bn is from pension funds, BlackRock's share of retirement assets only accounted for around half of its €379bn in institutional mandates.

BlackRock ranks third behind Insight's €220bn in terms of pension assets, but is second for institutional assets overall.

LGIM saw a 9% increase in UK institutional assets from €419.5bn in 2012 to €459.7bn and attracted €33.3bn in new money over the 12 months to end- March 2013, of which €30.8bn was from existing clients. Global bond and emerging market debt assets more than doubled, from €182bn to €411bn.

BlackRock, the top manager in 2011, saw UK assets increase by 9%, from nearly €346.9bn to €378.8bn. Coming in third, Insight reported a sizable jump in assets, which grew by 30% to €244.9bn, while Aviva Investors' assets contracted by 4% from €169.7bn to €161.5bn.

UK assets at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) increased by more than 10% from €109.5bn to over €120.6bn, while Standard Life Investments (SLI) and Aberdeen Asset Management grew assets by 4% and 14% - to €92.9bn and €70.4bn, respectively.

SLI reported just over €6bn in new institutional mandates over the period, while SSgA recorded nearly €5.9bn.

Coming in eighth place in the ranking, Scottish Widows Investment Partners' (SWIP) assets contracted by 4%, dropping from €67.1bn to €64.2bn.

Rounding out the top 10, Kames Capital and Schroders both recorded approximately 6% increases, to €57.9bn and €57.3bn, respectively, spurred in part by a reported €7.7bn in new mandates on part of Schroders.

For more on the UK and further details of the UK institutional manager survey, see the September issue of IPE.

Topics