Management

Assets managed by the world’s largest 500 fund managers rose by almost 12% to reach a record US$76 trillion in 2013, surpassing the previous high of over US$69 trillion set in 2007. The Pensions & Investments / Towers Watson World 500 researchshows that due to consistent growth of assets in the past six years, total assets have now more than doubled since 2002.

Concerns over the imminent end of quantitative easing in the U.S. have left investors much less confident in the outlook for the global economy and corporate profitability, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for October.

After six years of fruitful cooperation, Natixis Asset Management and Dorval Finance are strengthening their strategic partnership. On 9 September, Natixis Asset Management increased its stake in Dorval Finance from 25% to 50.1%.

IM Square is an innovative project in Europe offering a new and complementary approach to asset management by combining financial and industrial partnerships. The objective is to create a virtuous ecosystem bringing together entrepreneurial asset management companies, distributors and global investors.

Equity investments returned 4.0 percent, and fixed-income investments 2.0 percent. The return on these investments was 0.1 percentage point lower than the return on the benchmark indices. Investments in real estate returned 3.0 percent.