Amundi, which is the second-biggest ETF provider in Europe after Blackrock’s iShares, saw net inflows into both its active and passive offerings. In the first five months of the year, it welcomed €24.1bn in net inflows, €9.3bn of which was invested in active funds, exceeding Blackrock’s net inflows by just €17m.
At the start of the year, 2017 was heralded by many as a year for active managers. And Blackrock seems to vindicate that assessment. While it relied on ETFs for most of its inflows in recent years, 2017 has been a different story with almost two thirds of net inflows being contributed by active funds.
Among active managers, Pimco saw the largest amount of inflows, coming in third place overall with total net inflows of €21.2bn. This is almost three times the amount it saw during the whole of 2016. JP Morgan AM completes the top-four, with net inflows of €13.8bn.
GARS suffering continues
But not all active managers did as well: Standard Life Investments saw net outflows of €3bn in the first five months of the year, with its flagship GARS fund being the main culprit suffering net outflows of €2.5bn. Like many multi-strategy and global macro funds, it has struggled to make money in recent years, and investors are now losing patience. Over the past three years, the fund has made a total return of 0.13%, according to Financial Express.
But Standard Life Investment is not the worst-selling fund group of the year so far. Italian asset manager Aletti Gestielle registered net outflows of €3.4bn. The asset manager is owned by Banco BPM, which was founded in January this year by a number of Italian regional banks. According to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Poste Italiane and Banco BPM are currently studying a merger between Aletti Gestielle and its rival Anima Holding.
