Why Invesco is Asset Manager of the Year
Last week AsianInvestor announced the remaining five awards at a celebratory dinner for winners of this year's prizes, which were announced online last month.
We will feature a detailed write-up on all our award winners in the forthcoming June edition of AsianInvestor magazine.
In the coming week we will outline why those five marquee winners scooped their prizes. First up is Invesco, our Asset Manager of the Year.
Asset manager of the year
Invesco
When it comes to combining asset growth through new clients while delivering good returns, Invesco truly shone last year.
The fund manager ended 2015 with $75.4 billion of assets under management in Asia Pacific – a 12% organic growth in assets in a highly volatile year.
A full 66% of this, or $49 billion, originated from institutional investors, several of which were newly won in 2015. All told, institutional assets rose 38% during 2015, as pension funds, insurers, banks, sovereign wealth funds and others all awarded mandates to the firm or expanded existing ones. Invesco gained 23 new segregated accounts and eight top-up mandates.
The firm did suffer from redemptions from jittery onshore and offshore Chinese retail clients as the country’s stock market imploded last summer. However, mainland joint venture Invesco Great Wall’s AUM still rose from Rmb60 billion ($9.1 billion) at the start of 2015 to Rmb103 billion at the end, as investors ploughed money into its fixed income funds.
Several of Invesco’s funds were decent performers. For example, its IGW Core Competence Mixed Securities Fund posted a 20% annual return, the fourth consecutive year it had done so.
In India, the firm doubled down on its presence, raising its shareholding in local joint venture Religare Invesco Asset Management from 49% to 100% in November, even as other global players were exiting the market. Invesco believes the country offers many opportunities.
Other notable changes included its appointments of Terry Pan as chief executive for Greater China and Lindsay Wright as its head of institutional business (who left Invesco earlier this year). Going by the company’s success in China, both acquitted themselves well.
Invesco combined strong fund performance with new client mandates, amid tough market conditions. They are a very well-deserved recipient of this award.