Fiduciary managers see significant increase in assets – IPE survey | News

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IPE - Nearly two-dozen European fiduciary managers have seen a €110bn increase in assets under management (AUM) over the last year, according to an annual industry survey conducted by IPE.

Dutch asset manager APG - responsible for the assets of the civil service pension fund, the €261bn ABP - remained the largest fiduciary manager, with €300bn in AUM at the end of the second quarter, claiming 28% of surveyed assets due to a €26bn year-on-year increase.

Significant increases in assets under management were also seen by MEAG - responsible for insurance assets from Munich Re, ERGO and third-party clients - reporting a €20bn year-on-year increase to €202bn.

PGGM Investments claimed €123bn in overall assets compared with €106bn the previous June.

Combined, the three largest players dominated the European market, accounting for 57% of surveyed assets.

In total, companies surveyed both last July and this year saw assets increase by nearly 12% to €979bn.

Six new respondents, including consultancy Towers Watson and DB Advisors, were further responsible for a combined AUM of €106bn, bringing the total to nearly €1.1trn.

Mercer has seen its fiduciary management business nearly double over the past year but still remains one of the smaller providers in the European market.

Despite seeing assets at the end of July increase from €6.8bn to €11.5bn - mainly due to 27 new clients in the UK over the period and an additional 20 from other European countries - the consultancy was second-to-last in the ranking of 20 companies.

The Dutch market remained important for other leading providers, with Mn, Syntrus Achmea, ING Investment Management Europe and Robeco Group rounding out the Top 10, as well as Belgium’s Dexia, BlackRock and Towers Watson.

Ranking tenth, Robeco Group was able to nearly double its AUM since June last year to €20.5bn, recording inflows of €12bn from its single mandate award over the period.

The boost to business likely stems from Dutch scheme Vervoer’s decision to appoint the company as its manager.

Vervoer sacked Goldman Sachs Asset Management as its previous fiduciary manager and is currently suing the company in the UK High Court.

Towers Watson was also able to see its business grow by eight mandates worth a combined €7bn for the second-largest inflow in the survey.

Whereas Mercer saw the largest single increase in new mandates at 47, these delegated assets only accounted for €4.2bn in inflows, roughly equal with the €4.1bn in inflows seen by ING Investment Management Europe from six Dutch clients.

Meanwhile, Russell Investments, with €9.2bn in European fiduciary assets, did not figure in the table of the 20 largest managers, despite its global AUM at €72bn being ahead of fifth-ranked Syntrus Achmea with €55bn.

Overall, the Netherlands represented the largest single share of assets surveyed, claiming €662bn; Germany claimed second place with €192bn.

UK assets surveyed came a distant third at €40bn, despite the fact the country has nearly 250 clients overall, just 40 fewer than the Netherlands - indicating a trend that many smaller and medium-sized pension funds there are opting to transfer complete control of assets to a fiduciary or delegated manager.

Switzerland was by far the smallest single market, accounting for only €2bn of surveyed assets, with ‘other’ European countries accounting for €19.6bn.

For a more detailed breakdown of the survey, please see the current issue of IPE.