GLOBAL - A fivefold increase in performance fees helped to boost Allianz Global Investors' revenue growth by 28% in 2009, and raise its total revenue to €3.599bn last year.

The asset manager has reported increase performance fees from €85m to €432m between 2008 and 2009, as well as a 16% rise in net fee and commission income over the same time period from €2.728bn to €3.168bn.

This compares to revenues of €3.179bn in 2007, split between €2.972bn in net fee and commission income and €206m in performance fees.

Performance fees made up 11.7% of net revenues in 2009, up 8.7% from 2008 and 5.3% from 2007. The long-term average performance fees based on the period between 2002 and 2008 stands at 4.4% of net revenues.

Allianz GI reported an operating profit of €1.362bn for 2009, reflecting an increase of 50.6% on 2008. Inflows from clients hit a record €91.2bn and assets under management were up 28% on the previous year at €1.178bn.

The 2009 performance was largely generated by fixed income products, according to officials, which recouped more than three times the losses they incurred in 2008, and to a smaller extent from equities.

Andreas Utermann, global chief investment officer at RCM - an Allianz GI company - said performance fees are gaining momentum in the industry. He said he is seeing a convergence along a number of dimensions, including the product offering, fee structures and vehicles.

And while hedge fund fees for institutional hedge fund mandates  are now significantly below the traditional 2+20%, long-only managers are increasingly introducing performance fees while at the same time lowering their base fees, according to Utermann.

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