TOP FUND MANAGERS IN EUROPE
Greater bang
for their buck
Europe has the highest number of firms in the Funds Europe Top 200 but Luke Beacon and Nick Fitzpatrick ask if the numbers indicate that US firms are more operationally effective
European firms may dominate the Funds Europe Top 200 asset manager rankings in terms of their presence – but US firms, although fewer in number, have the largest amount of assets.
Total assets under management of the Top 200, measured in euros, is nearly €100 trillion (€95,136 billion) and the average AUM is €476 billion per firm.
For research purposes, we only include firms with operations in Europe, which means that some large US players will not feature in our Top 200 ranking.
Of the 200 firms, 106 (53%) are based in Europe – including non-EU countries such as the UK and Switzerland – and their total AUM is €26,391 billion.
The US has 71 firms (36%) in the Top 200. However, with €62,938 billion of AUM, US firms control 66% of the Top 200 assets. This means that whereas average AUM for European firms was €249 billion, US firms managed an average of €886 billion each at the time our survey took place.
Mario Draghi
The numbers could point to the superior equity-owning culture that exists in the US in contrast to the relatively higher proportion of money held by EU households in bank accounts, which is a frequent frustration for Europe’s asset managers.
Equally, the fact there are fewer instances of US firms appearing in the Top 200 – yet with larger AUM per firm – could also point to US asset managers having gained greater scale and efficiencies than European counterparts.
European competitiveness
Mario Draghi, the former Italian Prime Minister and former President of the European Central Bank, would likely take note of these numbers. In 2024 he published ‘The future of European competitiveness’, where he dissected the friction factors that impede EU firms of all kinds on the global stage. What he said about Europe’s defence industry may well apply to European asset management.
“The defence industry is too fragmented, hindering its ability to produce at scale, and it suffers from a lack of standardisation and interoperability of equipment, weakening Europe’s ability to act as a cohesive power. For example, twelve different types of battle tanks are operated in Europe, whereas the US produces only one,” he wrote.
For Mario Draghi, innovative companies that want to scale up in Europe are “hindered at every stage by inconsistent and restrictive regulations”. This is a criticism familiar to European asset managers of their industry.
French scale
Behind US and European firms, Asia’s asset managers are next with AUM of €2,347 billion in our survey, which is 2% of the total AUM found in the Funds Europe Top 200, followed by Australia/Oceania with €1,159 billion (1%).
If average AUM per firm and geography is an indicator of efficiency levels in the asset management sector, then France is the second-most efficient out of the Top 200 after the US. Though still a long way behind the US’s average AUM per firm (€886 billion), France achieved an average AUM among its firms in this research of €398 billion.
France is followed by Italy (€326 billion). At this point, Europe loses its foothold. The figures suggest efficiencies are greater in both Japan and Australia, where €290 billion is the average AUM among firms for both countries.
Looking at the overall AUM rankings from a country-by-country perspective, we see that the top five countries in order of total AUM are:
- US (€62,938 billion of AUM, which is 66% of the total)
- UK (€7,241 billion, 8% of total)
- France (€5,573 billion, 6% of total)
- Switzerland (€4,569 billion, 5% of total)
- Germany (€3,541 billion, 4% of total)
Japan then pips Italy to come in sixth position, with €1,449 billion of AUM, 2% of the total.
Although Europe has the largest number of firms in the Top 200, the US has the largest on a country-by-country basis, with its 71 firms (36% of total) followed by the UK’s 29 firms (15%), Switzerland’s 16 firms (8%), and France and Germany both with 14 firms (7% each).
The next highest after these five is the Netherlands (6 firms, 3%), less than half that of France or Germany.
Focus on European firms
Let’s now look specifically at the numbers for European members of the Top 200. As mentioned above, but repeated for reference, the total AUM of the European-based Top 200 firms is €26,391 billion and the average AUM per firm is €249 billion. There are 106 (53% of total) firms in the Top 200 that are based in Europe.
Although there is a gap between the number of firms based in the EU versus European firms that are not in the EU, it isn’t huge. Using percentages for just the European cohort (and not the wider Top 200), there are 59 EU firms in the Top 200 and 47 firms from Europe but which are not in the EU.
EU-based firms have a higher total AUM compared to European firms that are not in the EU: €14,389 billion (55%) vs €12,003 billion (45%). However, Mario Draghi can continue to lament competitiveness in the EU when reading that European non-EU firms have a slightly higher average AUM – €255 billion (non-EU) vs €244 billion (EU-based).
Total assets under management
Looking at total AUM, the UK – with its €7,241 billion – has 27% of total AUM for European firms (see table 6).
We see that the UK is followed by France (€5,573 billion, which is 21%), Switzerland (€4,569 billion, or 17%) and Germany (€3,541 billion, or 13%).
Italy is the fifth biggest (€1,302 billion, which is 5%) and the Netherlands ranks not far behind (€1,163 billion, or 4%). No other European country accounts for more than €1 trillion.
In terms of number of Europe-based firms in the Top 200, the UK has almost twice as many as any other European country (29 firms, 27%), and more than France and Germany combined.
Switzerland is next after the UK (16 firms, 15%). France and Germany (both with 14 firms, 13%) are the other big players. After that the number of firms per country falls significantly to the Netherlands (6, 6%).
French trinity
In terms of average AUM, France (€398 billion) is considerably higher than any other country in Europe, helped by Amundi, Natixis Investment Management and Axa Investment Managers, all of whom make the top 30 firms of the overall Top 200 and are three of the top seven European-based firms.
After France comes Italy (€326 billion), then Switzerland (€286 billion) and Germany (€253 billion), with the UK (€250 billion) in fifth place.
Drilling into the top 10 European-based firms, four are based in the UK, three are French, while Switzerland, Germany and Italy all have one firm each in the top ten.
Amundi is almost €600 billion larger than anyone else, and UBS Asset Management, Legal & General Investment Management and Natixis are the only other firms to have more than €1 trillion of AUM.
Finally, a note on currencies. Of all the firms in our Top 200 research, the dollar is the most popular reporting currency. The dollar is used by 100 firms (50% of the Top 200) to report their figures. The euro is next most common, used by 60 (30%) followed by CHF, used by 14 and GBP used by 13 (both 7%). The remaining 13 firms use other currencies including SEK, BRL, JPY and CAD amongst others.
