Lyxor announces product push, goal to grow AUM by 50% by 2018

Lyxor, the asset management arm of Société Générale, has announced a major product push in the ETF, smart beta and multi-manager markets.

The company, which currently manages and advises on €96bn of assets, unveiled a new organisational structure and plans to grow its assets under management and advisory by 50% by the end of 2018, reaching the €150bn mark.

The new organisation consists of three business lines – ETFs & Indexing, Absolute Return & Solutions and Alternatives & Multi-Management.

In the ETF market, Lyxor said it would focus on maintaining its offering of “efficient” and liquid instruments.

The company plans to consolidate its position as an “alternative” ETF manager to US giants in Northern Europe and maintain its leadership in France, Spain and Italy.

However, Lyxor said it would make a significant investment in developing smart-beta products.

It said it expected to grow its ETF business by 15% over the next five years, doubling assets and beating the 10% forecast market growth rate.

Lionel Paquin, chief executive at Lyxor, said the asset manager aimed to do so by boosting its ETF & Indexing business through “massive investment” but also “innovation”.

In the absolute return space, Paquin said the company would build its capacity as a “solutions provider”, focusing on risk-based solutions.

The chief executive added that Lyxor would pay particular attention to the development of risk-parity solutions for fixed income, in response to growing demands from banks and institutional investors.

Lyxor, which has a track record as a provider of hedge fund managed accounts, also intends to extend its offering to managed accounts for mutual funds.

This, said Paquin, would make Lyxor an “integrator” capable of assuming fiduciary responsibilities and taking care of fund selection, portfolio management and customised infrastructure across all asset classes.

“Our mission is to simplify investors’ life,” he added.

Paquin said current discussions with EU pension funds and other institutional investors had led the company to think about developing its capacity to offer an all-encompassing, customised, managed-account service.  

The current AUM split between the three business lines is 43% in ETFs & Indexing, 25% in Absolute Return & Solutions and 24% on Alternatives & Multi-Management.