Institutional fund managers are increasingly seeking to undertake retail business according to the findings of a global survey of the fund management industry by Skandia Investment Group (SIG) as revealed in Hong Kong today.
SIG has found increasing support from institutional fund managers to the idea of operating in the retail space and our survey of the global fund management industry bears this out,” says Rob Williams, SIG chief sales and marketing officer.
Williams said that two thirds of fund managers (64%) interviewed in the survey agreed that institutional managers were seeking to broaden out their distribution into retail. Given that over two thirds (65%) of those surveyed were from wholly institutional fund groups this gave a pretty good indication of intentions, he says.
The survey, the first of its kind by SIG, questioned senior executives at more than 60 fund management groups around the world with combined assets under management of over $7 trillion. The groups were asked about their views on a range of areas and issues pertinent to the future of the asset management industry.
At the conference, Williams outlined SIGs pedigree in offering research led investment solutions whereby the business identifies and researches some of the worlds best fund managers often institutional managers – before packaging them into compelling investment solutions designed specifically to meet investor needs.
He said that such a manager was US boutique Stone Harbor Investment Partners (which also attended the conference) which was mandated to run the highly successful Skandia Emerging Market Debt Fund. Stone Harbor was identified by SIG and in 2008 elected to run the fund which is now sold worldwide and has performed above its benchmark.
Other institutional managers used by Skandia and being introduced to local investors at the conference included UK based SVM, Gabelli Asset Management of the USA, South African owned Acadian Asset Managers and First State of Australia.
D.C.