LONDON — U.S.-based money managers are grabbing a growing slice of the European institutional pension market, a trend that is expected to continue over the next few years, according to a report on the European asset management industry.
Huw van Steenis, asset management and diversified financials analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co. International Ltd., London, and author of the report, sees the greatest opportunities for foreign money managers to gather assets in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries.
Also, the increased focus of European plans on liability management and yield enhancement should be a boon to specialist managers including Barclays Global Investors, San Francisco; State Street Global Advisors, Boston; Northern Trust Corp., Chicago; Pacific Investment Management Co., Newport Beach, Calif.; and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, New York. In an e-mail response to a question, Mr. Van Steenis explained BGI, SSgA, Northern and GSAM have developed a good reputation for low-cost, well risk-managed quantitative strategies. PIMCO has developed a good book of fixed-income and liability-matching business, he added.
For example, trends in the Dutch market are toward higher-yielding investment strategies, liability-led investing and greater use of enhanced indexation. That reflects thinking in other parts of continental Europe as well, including Switzerland and the Nordic countries.
A number of Dutch plans were adopting a ground-breaking investment strategy mix of one-third passive, one-third enhanced index and one-third actively managed, said Mr. Van Steenis, but he would not name the plans.