New findings from the 21st edition of the Monterey Insight Fund Report, as compiled by Monterey Insight, the independent fund research company, reveal the market shares of all service providers in Luxembourg’s funds industry.
Luxembourg-domiciled fund assets rose by 4.3% to US$3,777.7 billion (€3,121.9bn) over the year 2014, up from US$3,621.7 billion (€2,628.2bn) in 2013. Once again this sets a new industry high point for the market, breaching the €3 billion barrier for the first time. The number of sub-funds reached 13,674, an increase of 226 sub-funds or 1.7% over the previous year (up from 13,448). Specialised Investment Funds (SIFs) contributed US$434.1bn with 3,221 funds, up by 1.8% from US$426.4bn (3,105 funds), at the end of 2014. The top positions remain unchanged for administration with State Street in first position by total net assets (US$ 576.9bn), J.P. Morgan in second spot (US$512.5bn), and BNP Paribas (US$261.3bn) ranked third ahead of BNY Mellon (US$250.8bn) in fourth position. As has been the case for a number of years, J.P. Morgan maintained its lead position (US$750.5bn) for custody business with State Street remaining in second place (US$651.1bn). PricewaterhouseCoopers continued its lead auditing 5,424 sub-funds, ahead of KPMG and Deloitte.
Among legal advisers, Arendt & Medernach has consolidated its leading market share by number of funds, although Elvinger, Hoss & Prussen is ahead by fund assets. Among fund management companies, the largest fund promoter of Luxembourg domiciled schemes is JPMorgan Asset Management (US$271.2bn), followed by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (US$195.3bn), and in third position Franklin Templeton Investments (US$161.2bn). For SICARs the US based Carlyle Group is the largest promoter and administrator of SICARs with over $8.1bn in assets in both cases.
The Swiss based Partners Group (US$5.1bn) and French based Ardian (US$2.8bn) are the promoters in second and third position for SICARs. SICARs had total assets of US$39.2bn from 277 schemes. BlackRock Financial Management took the lead for the largest self-managed Sicav with assets of US$14.5bn, ahead of Svenska Handelsbanken (US$13.9bn). As last year the largest umbrella fund by number of sub-funds was DB X-Trackers with 142 sub-funds, ahead of Fidelity Funds (139 sub-funds) and JPMorgan Funds (118 sub-funds). Equity funds, at US$1,172.3bn, are the most popular asset class in 2014 accounting for 31.0% of the total assets in Luxembourg, just slightly ahead of bond funds with a 29.7% share of total assets. Cash products fell again this year by 6.6% from last year. More niche asset classes, such as Private Equity/Venture Capital increased by 21.6%, with Alternative Investment and Property funds both going up by 12.7% and 9.3% respectively. Out of 1,618 new funds launched during 2014, Global Bond funds attracted the greatest assets (US$20.0bn within 130 funds), followed by Europe Bonds representing US$18.0bn (73 funds) and Global Mixed Equities/Bonds with US$13.7bn (186 funds). Karine Pacary, Managing Director, Monterey Insight, comments: “We are very pleased to see it was a productive year for the Luxembourg fund industry, breaking through the €3 trillion mark for the first time. Total assets invested went up by 4.3% which was reflected by wide spread growth across all the different asset classes. Bonds were the largest type of new product launched during 2014, mainly investing in either global or European markets. More than 150 promoters choose Luxembourg to launch their funds which again highlights the attractiveness of the jurisdiction. We are also proud to expand the content of our publication and this year, for the first time, the report now includes a full listing of SICAR schemes showing a complete picture of the Luxembourg fund industry and the business performed by its services providers.