After dominating the Asia Pacific flows in 2018, the number of Chinese asset managers ranked in the top 10 nearly halved in 2019.
Five of the top 10 asset managers by net inflows from APAC were Chinese firms – compared to 2018’s nine – fuelled by $69 billion of outflows from money market funds to higher-yielding funds, according to recent Broadridge data.
Domestic managers were the primary beneficiaries of the turnover in rankings. For example, Thai managers Kasikorn and SCB Asset Management made the top ranks due to success from roll-over funds. Japanese demand for exchange-traded funds led Nomura – the member of both year’s top 10 – to rise to the top position, up from third place in 2018.
Vanguard was the only global asset manager from the 2019 list benefitting from rising fee pressures in Australia driven by regulatory developments.
Yield Search
By asset class, fixed income was 2019’s winner with a near 400 percent year-on-year increase of net inflows to reach $256 billion. According to Broadridge, higher yields and, most notably, new inclusions into global indices led large amounts of new money to flood into domestic fixed income products such as China policy bank bond index funds.
Consequently, Chinese bond funds made up eight of the top 10 best-selling long-term mutual funds. The remaining top fixed-income funds were an Australian superannuation fund and a global utilities equity fund from Pictet.
