Strong growth in equity markets last year helped asset managers achieve their largest rise in revenues since 2010, with alternative managers gaining the most.
Traditional asset managers, which accounted for 44 of the publicly traded firms in the study by consultancy Casey Quirk, achieved revenue growth of 14%, while revenues at the eight alternative managers rose 35%.
Alternative managers also had higher operating profits than the traditional managers, due partly to their success in attracting new assets.
“Alternatives firms are benefiting as both institutional and individual investors search for products and solutions that deliver less correlation and volatility, and additional sources of income,” says Jeffrey Levi, a director at Casey Quirk. “These firms are also achieving more consistent operating margins than in the past.”
The study of 52 publicly traded asset managers measured the median revenue and profit of the firms. The median, or “middle number”, is the value that separates the higher half of a sample from the lower half.
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