In “Global Asset Management 2013: Capitalizing on the Recovery”, the firm’s eleventh annual survey of the asset management industry, BCG notes rising investor demand in recent years for “specialties, solutions, and passive products”, driven in part by the persistent low interest rate environment.
The trend was evident in fund flows last year, as investors reduced their developed market equity and money market allocations by 5% and 1% respectively. In contrast, the ten biggest-selling strategies in Europe and the US were mostly “specialties or solutions”, such as high yield and multi-asset.
As a result, the leading players in both regions maintained their dominance, owing to their higher concentration in such non-traditional investments. Indeed, the top ten European and US asset managers respectively captured 51% and 94% of total net new fund asset flows (see table, below).
Multi-asset ‘key’
In such an environment, traditional fund houses “have little choice but to try to identify specific areas in which they can build more relevant capabilities”, BCG argues. In particular, investment in multi-asset and specialist skills is vital for firms wishing to compete in the fast-growing solutions sector.
BCG estimates that, by 2016, traditional products will represent just 44% of global assets under management and 30% of revenues – down from 50% and 33% respectively in 2013.
Groups in continental Europe and Asia Pacific face the greatest risk of being left behind. “There, due to the smaller presence of pension funds and endowment businesses, specialties did not develop as much as in the US or UK markets: they weren’t as relevant to mass-retail investors or insurance companies and other institutions with restrictive investment guidelines,” the report notes.
“This gap set the stage for US and UK managers to expand successfully, investing beyond their home markets in continental Europe and Asia Pacific.”
“Global Asset Management 2013: Capitalizing on the Recovery” can be viewed on the BCG website, here (registration required).
| US | Europe |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset manager | Net fund flows ($bn) | Cum. share of total market net flows | Asset manager | Net fund flows ($bn) | Cum. share of total market net flows |
| Vanguard | 139 | 35% | Pimco | 44 | 13% |
| Pimco | 65 | 51% | BlackRock | 29 | 21% |
| BlackRock | 57 | 65% | Alliance Bernstein | 20 | 27% |
| JP Morgan Chase | 25 | 72% | Nordea | 16 | 32% |
| DoubleLine Capital | 22 | 77% | M&G Investments | 13 | 36% |
| T Rowe Price | 15 | 81% | Axa | 13 | 40% |
| MFS Investment Management | 14 | 85% | BNY Mellon | 11 | 43% |
| Dimensional Fund Advisors | 14 | 88% | Standard Life | 11 | 46% |
| State Street Global Advisors | 13 | 91% | Aberdeen | 9 | 49% |
| Lord Abbett | 12 | 94% | JP Morgan Chase | 9 | 51% |
