(pictured: Peter Alexander)
No Australian firms made it into the top 25 foreign asset managers making headway in mainland China, according to the latest rankings by Shanghai-based research firm Z-Ben Advisors.
While big global firms tended to dominate, the report includes some surprises. A number of regional Asia firms scored higher than their total assets under management would suggest, which was a reflection of the mainland’s importance to their strategic plans. And some of the largest global managers are absent from the list due to their low activity levels in certain business areas.
According to Peter Alexander, Z-Ben managing director, the most interesting and thought-provoking finding in the research was that the top-ranked firm, JP Morgan, achieved a score of only 51 per cent.
“We can’t think of a better way to highlight the huge growth potential that China offers even the best-positioned manager,” Alexander said. “It’s also a score that should fuel determination among firms ranked outside the top 25: China is likely to be the one geography where gains will come in scales large enough to allow good strategists and executors to leapfrog larger competitors.”
The research involved an assessment of the mainland efforts of more than 100 foreign firms across three-dozen strategic elements that either have created or are likely to create meaningful business opportunities. They covered inbound, outbound and onshore investment businesses. Z-Ben believes onshore investment opportunities to be by far the most important over the next three years.
AMP and ANZ are the Australian financial services firms which have invested most in the Asia region. Notable absences from the rankings among the big US firms include State Street Global Advisors and Vanguard.
The rankings and the firms’ index scores are:
- JP Morgan 51.1
- UBS 42.6
- BNP Paribas 35.7
- Invesco 35.6
- Schroders 35.5
- HSBC 33.4
- Societe Generale 31.7
- BlackRock 31.4
- Deutsche AM 30.2.
- Prudential Financial 27.8
- Nikko AM 26.5
- Eurizon 24.9
- Value Partners 24.6
- Allianz Global Investors 23.7
- PineBridge 23.3
- Fidelity 22.8
- Samsung 21.9
- Franklin Templeton 20.4
- Goldman Sachs 18.7
- Morgan Stanley 17.7
- DBS 17.6
- BMO Asset Management 16.9
- AXA Investment Management 16.5
- Eastspring 16.4
- Sumitomo Mitsui 16.1
