GERMANY - Asset management group State Street Global Advisors says its institutional assets under management in Germany and Austria rose 43% last year to total €10.1bn.

No further breakdown of the figure was given.

SSGA attributed the significant rise to a widening of its customer base. It said that during 2004, it acquired 15 new institutional clients in Austria and Germany. It did not give a total figure.

Of SSGA’s clients in the two countries, 42% are company pension schemes, 20% are pension funds, 14% are banks and 12% are insurers. Another seven percent are cash management clients.

SSGA also said the increase was fuelled by stronger demand for its products. These included an index-based product, enhanced strategies, quantitative and fundamental approaches as well as tactical asset allocation.

“Building on our expertise in passive asset management, we have become a leading provider of risk-controlled investment strategies and quantitative and fundamental approaches,” commented Klaus Esswein, chief executive of SSGA’s German arm.

Passive equity mandates account for half of SSGA’s €10.bn in institutional AUM. Passive bond mandates make up another 25%. Active equity mandates and TAA each account for 10% of the AUM, while active bond mandates make up the remaining five percent.

On 30 September, SSGA scrapped its KAG, or the main German investment vehicle, to concentrate purely on asset management and advisory. With the KAG, SSGA was provide all services – for example, administration – related to institutional and investment funds.

According to Esswein, recent figures from German fund industry association BVI are proof that SSGA made the right decision to concentrate solely on asset management and advisory.

The BVI reported earlier this month that around 35% of the €543.2bn in German institutional fund volume was managed not by the KAG itself but by external asset managers.

“We were the first in Germany to identify this trend and have since adapted to it by restructuring our company,” Esswein said.

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