Chart-topper JPMorgan achieves score of just over 50 percent
Global asset managers lack the competitiveness needed for the Chinese market, according to a ranking of foreign investors by Shanghai-based consulting firm Z-Ben Advisors.
The study, which assesses ‘global managers’ ability to access the onshore market and service customers in and from the mainland’, examines 100 investment managers to come up with the 25 most active foreign fund houses in China.
Asset management major JPMorgan comes top with a 51.1 percent score, followed by UBS at 42.6 percent, and BNP Paribas, Invesco and Schroders, each with a score of around 35 percent.
Interestingly, some smaller-sized asset managers such as Italy’s Eurizon, Hong Kong’s Value Partners and US-based PineBridge have much more dynamic business activities in China than big household names such as Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs and AXA IM.
The report also highlights that Vanguard and State Street ‒ the world’s second and third-largest investment managers by assets under management, respectively ‒ did not make the top 25 list due to low activity in one of the three business areas measured: onshore asset management, inbound flows and outbound flows.
‘The fact that the top-ranked manager in our survey achieves a score of only a little over 50 percent highlights the huge growth potential in China for even the best-positioned manager, and that firms ranked highly this year must guard against complacency,’ explains the advisory in a note announcing the results. ‘It is the same growth potential that provides those firms ranked outside the top 25 [with] the opportunity to gain ground on their peers if they prove successful in executing on a well-designed China strategy.’
Assets under management at mutual funds in mainland China, ‘one of the most under-represented and under-serviced financial markets in the world’, have grown from $400 bn in 2010 to $1.3 tn in 2015, with Z-Ben predicting total assets to reach $3 tn by 2021.
‘Despite recent volatility, many of the managers on our list have been quietly expanding their China presence and capabilities over the last year,’ the report further highlights. ‘Most are using a variety of approaches: investing in onshore joint ventures and subsidiaries, creating relationships with Chinese banks to capture outflows, and offering their own products to provide China with exposure to foreign investors.’
Candice de Monts-Petit
Candice de Monts-Petit joined IR Magazine as a senior editor in 2012. Prior to this, she worked in investor relations, first as an IRO for oil and gas firms in Paris and Moscow and subsequently as an IR consultant in London. She graduated in business...
