The assets of the world's 500 largest fund managers rose by 10 percent to $53.6 trillion in 2005 from a year before, with the industry still dominated by the biggest companies, a study showed on Wednesday.
The world's 20 largest firms involved in fund management, led by Switzerland's UBS AG, held 37 percent of all assets measured, a share which is unchanged from 2004, consultants Watson Wyatt and US newspaper Pensions & Investments said in an annual report on the industry.
The report comes at a time of continued merger and acquisition activity in the asset management arena and this has boosted the size of companies such as Britain's Aberdeen Asset Management and US fund house Legg Mason Inc.
US-based companies accounted for half of the top-20 companies while European fund management firms raised their presence and asset values in the rankings. "Most of the growth in total assets in 2005 was market-driven with the larger firms being the main beneficiaries," Paul Trickett, European head of investment consulting at Watson Wyatt, said.
Over the past five years, the composition of the top-20 has held relatively steady, with 13 asset managers still in place. Across the whole survey, however, a total of 210 of the original firms have dropped out, the report said. "Merger and acquisition activity and a competitive environment continue to make asset management a cyclical and inherently unstable business," Watson Wyatt's Trickett said.
Among the biggest changes last year was the case of Legg Mason, which surged to 11th place from 37th following its acquisition of fund assets from US banking giant Citigroup.
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