Vanguard passes State Street to become world’s No 2 asset manager, IPE says
The world’s 10 largest institutional investment managers expanded assets under management by 9 percent last year, outstripping growth in the rest of the industry, according to a study by Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE).
Assets under management at the 10 largest institutional investment managers jumped by a combined $1.2 tn in 2012, according to the study. The pace of growth was ahead of the 8 percent increase registered by the top 400 institutional investment managers.
Rising equity prices, growing optimism over economic recovery in the US and central bank monetary easing programs around the world have helped buoy institutional investors in the past year or so, even as concerns over the pace of Chinese growth and the European sovereign debt crisis remain.
The benefits of the perceived economic recovery, however, are going disproportionately to the largest investors – a trend also seen in the hedge fund industry over the past year, where assets grew to an all-time record as the largest funds grew and many of the smallest ones folded.
BlackRock retained its spot as the world’s largest institutional investment manager last year, with its assets under management rising to $2.869 tn at the end of 2012 from $2.712 tn a year earlier, according to the research.
Vanguard Asset Management took the second spot, overtaking State Street Global Advisers, as its assets under management expanded by 13 percent last year, the largest gain among the top 10 investment management firms. Vanguard’s total assets under management grew to $1.62 tn at the end of 2012 from $1.423 tn at the end of the previous year.
State Street’s assets under management rose to $1.585 tn at the end of 2012 from 1.437 tn a year earlier. The 10 percent increase didn’t prevent it from falling to third spot from second overall.
In fourth place comes Fidelity Investments, with $1.279 tn in assets under management, followed by Bill Gross’ PIMCO with $1.231 tn, JPMorgan Asset Management with $1.066 tn, BNY Mellon Asset Management with $1.051 tn, and Pramerica Investment Management, with $802 bn in assets under management.
Of the 20 biggest firms, 13 have headquarters in more than one country, 11 are headquartered in both the UK and the US, according to the data. Four are at least partially headquartered in France, while two have headquarters in Germany and one in Belgium. The bottom of the top 20 was Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, headquartered in Japan. Two were headquartered exclusively in the US and one in the UK.
