Union Investment, a German asset manager, said its assets under management reached a record high for the company at the end of the first half of the year with €6.6 billion of net new business.
Assets under management grew by 6.2% to €180.8 billion, compared with €170.3 billion at the end of 2011. The firm, which is headed by Hans Joachim Reinke, CEO of Union Asset Management Holding, said absolute returns increased across nearly all asset classes despite the year’s volatility.
Institutional business was the biggest contributor to net inflows, accounting for €6.2 billion. Reinke said this was “the best start to a year that we have ever had in this business segment” after a total of 14 new mandates were won.
Eleven of these came from outside of the German co-operative banking sector – in which Union Investments has its roots.
Nearly one-third of the new money came from outside Germany in the first half of the year. The highest demand was for corporate bonds, covered bonds and emerging-market fixed-income funds.
Retail business “bucked the industry trend” by generating net inflows of €400 million.
The firm’s open-ended real-estate funds saw €1.2 billion of inflows, catering to the “demand for security”, the firm said.
Reinke said Union Investment believes renewable energies and sustainability will open up good opportunities for the firms in future.
Over the past 18 months the volume of sustainable assets managed by Union Investment has grown by €1.5 billion to €5.0 billion, making it one of Germany’s largest providers of sustainable investments.
©2012 funds europe
