Asset manager Allianz Global Investors is to offer British retail clients the chance to pay a lower yearly fee for some of its UK equity funds if they are prepared to give up a slice of any outperformance. The move is the latest attempt by an active fund manager that picks assets for clients to counter low-cost exchange-traded funds that passively track indexes and have gained market share as cheap central bank money has curbed market volatility.
AllianzGI, which said its performance-fee option would be simple to understand and rival the cost attraction of passive products, follows the introduction of a new share class last year by peer Fidelity International. "We want to regain market share from passive (funds)," Andreas Utermann, chief executive of AllianzGI, part of German insurer Allianz, told journalists. "Right now, it's about levelling the playing field."