Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • LOGIN
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Coronavirus
    • Courts
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • ETFs
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Opinion
    • Partner Content
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Russia-Ukraine War
    • SECURE Act 2.0
    • Special Reports
    • White Papers
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • WPS Innovation Awards
    • Eddy Awards
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
    • Impact Investing
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • ESG Rated ETFs
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Performance Data
    • P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Future of Investments Research Series
    • Charts & Infographics
    • Polls
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
    • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
    • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
    • 2022 WorldPensionSummit
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. MONEY MANAGEMENT
January 26, 2015 12:00 AM

AMP Capital taps strategic partners for targeted growth in Asia

Douglas Appell
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    In a region where big financial conglomerates control distribution and — directly or through affiliates — the vast bulk of managed assets, Sydney-based AMP Capital has made strategic partnerships with such financial powerhouses the building blocks of its growth strategy.

    AMP Capital is focused on tie-ups with “national champions” in the region’s biggest savings pools of Australia, Japan and China to power its growth, said Anthony Fasso, director, international, in a recent interview.

    The tie-up came ready made in Australia, where AMP Ltd., the firm’s 85% owner, is the country’s largest wealth manager and financial services group, said Mr. Fasso.

    The remaining share is held by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking; the Tokyo-based giant purchased 15% in March 2012 to cement a strategic partnership with AMP Capital for the Japanese market.

    More recently, AMP Capital has deepened ties with Beijing-based China Life Insurance Co., launching a fund management company joint venture in September 2013, followed by parent company AMP Ltd.’s October 2014 purchase of an almost 20% stake in subsidiary China Life Pension Co. Ltd., the largest competitor in that country’s corporate “enterprise annuity” market. Both the joint venture and the pension company are based in Beijing.

    The company’s approach amounts to what could be referred to as a focused global strategy.

    “We don’t want to be in every country in Asia or the world,” said Mr. Fasso, citing Japan, China, Europe, the U.S. and South Korea as leading business opportunities for his firm.

    And “rather than trying to take on the world in every asset class,” AMP Capital is very focused on a “real-asset story: property, infrastructure, listed and unlisted, debt and equity,” he said.

    In Europe and the U.S., AMP Capital has been enjoying organic growth without the help of tie-ups with financial powerhouses. The strategy of forging “big, big partnerships” — first with Mitsubishi UFJ, the biggest financial conglomerate in the world’s second biggest savings pool, and then with China Life, the biggest life insurance company in the world’s “most interesting future savings pool” — has been “confined to Asia,” he said.

    Australia’s other big asset management firms — led by Macquarie Asset Management and First State Investments — have also built up their presence overseas in recent years, but AMP Capital’s reliance on big partnerships, and its relative focus on the institutional marketplace, is a differentiator, said Mr. Fasso.

    Ian Martin, Sydney-based vice chairman, Asia Pacific, with investment bank Berkshire Capital, New York, said Mr. Fasso and AMP Capital should be given some credit for “thinking outside the box” in pushing overseas. The Japanese deal in particular seems to be working “quite well for them,” while getting a foot in the door in a fast-growing pension market in China that is subject to considerable regulatory change could prove a “very smart move,” he said.

    Mr. Fasso said Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking’s status as “the biggest manager of pension assets” in Japan, in addition to doing custody, record keeping and some level of fiduciary management, has provided AMP Capital with substantial access to that country’s pension fund clients, public and private. While AMP Capital had been doing business in Japan for more than a decade, he said the tie-up has led to “a lot of success,” particularly when it comes to infrastructure debt funds, where Japanese clients “have led the world” in allocations. He declined to provide specific numbers ahead of AMP Ltd.’s pending announcement of its 2014 results on Feb. 19.

    Infrastructure debt is a story “where Asia has led the rest of the world,” with South Korea and China on Japan’s heels as top investors in that asset segment, he said.

    The tie-up with Mitsubishi UFJ has helped boost AMP Capital’s assets under management on behalf of clients based outside of Australia and New Zealand to 15% of the firm’s total AUM of A$145 billion (US$126.5 billion) as of Sept. 30, up from roughly 5% only five years before, he said.

    The firm’s more recent tie-ups with China Life haven’t had a similar impact yet, but that’s just a matter of time, Mr. Fasso predicted.

    AMP Capital’s money management joint venture with China Life had a “phenomenal first year,” starting out as 90th among 90 fund management companies, in terms of AUM, at its launch but ending the year among the top 40, after bringing out money market, fixed-income and equity fund offerings.

    The pension company tie-up, meanwhile, will be launched this year as soon as the venture is formally approved by China’s government.

    With those new engines of growth in play, “our international business will be very, very strong in the next couple of years,” particularly with the contributions from Japan and China, he predicted.

    Related Articles
    Nikko's Shibata: Goal of becoming global asset manager in sight
    Value Partners looking to link up with AMG to gain entry to U.S.
    Cathay seeks to build global name through Conning buy
    A look at Asian asset management in charts
    Harvest Global CEO: Chinese managers must use 'window of opportunity' to set st…
    Coming investment boom not just for Asian managers
    AMP boosts infrastructure debt team in London
    AMP Capital named adviser to Mitsubishi UFJ clean-energy investment fund
    Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services hires new CEO
    AMP Capital adds to infrastructure equity team
    AMP Capital hires global head of equities as part of restructuring
    Recommended for You
    Thomas F.X. Powers and T. William Roberts III
    GW&K Investment Management promotes 2 to co-CEO
    Abortion rights demonstrators gather outside the US Supreme Court after a deeply divided Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and wiped out the constitutional right to abortion.
    Asset managers say they'll pay for travel after Supreme Court abortion ruling
    J.P. Morgan Asset Management names senior investment specialist
    ESG: Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    Sponsored Content: ESG: Sustainability - Gaining Momentum

    Reader Poll

    June 6, 2022
    SEE MORE POLLS >
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    Nearing the finish line: Ideas on end-state investing for corporate DB plans
    The Meaning of "Portfolio Intelligence"
    Credit Indices: Closing the Fixed Income Evolutionary Gap
    Forever in Style: Benchmarking with the Morningstar® Broad Style Indexes℠
    Crossroads: Politics, Inflation, & Bonds
    Is there a mid-cap gap in your DC plan?
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    June 20, 2022 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Content Solutions
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Coronavirus
      • Courts
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • ETFs
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Opinion
      • Partner Content
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Russia-Ukraine War
      • SECURE Act 2.0
      • Special Reports
      • White Papers
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • WPS Innovation Awards
      • Eddy Awards
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
      • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
      • Impact Investing
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Performance Data
      • P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
      • Future of Investments Research Series
      • Charts & Infographics
      • Polls
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
      • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
      • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
      • 2022 WorldPensionSummit