The study, which analysed the non-ETF holdings of more than 2,100 unfettered FoFs in June, found that BlackRock had 1,258 such clients, ahead of JP Morgan and Schroders (see Table 1, below).
The US fund giant also topped the FoF assets table, with €4.8bn – almost €1bn more than Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, its nearest competitor with €3.9bn.
However, none of BlackRock’s products featured in the ten most popular FoF investments – a list headed by M&G Optimal Income. The M&G fund, a strategic bond strategy launched in 2006, had 180 multi-manager clients in June, accounting for assets of almost €1bn (see Table 2).
Ed Moisson, Lipper’s head of UK and cross-border research, wrote: “Inflows to third party funds of funds this year are on course to exceed the total achieved in 2010 (€32.3bn) and may even approach the 2006 high point (€50.3bn), so it is an opportune time to look closer into what this group of professional fund selectors has been investing.”
Platinum members can see how European fund selectors plan to change their asset allocations over the next 12 months, in The Data Centre. Use the Country Data Summaries links on the right-hand side of the page to see how sentiment on various topics has changed.
A copy of “Top of the FoFs: funds of funds’ favourite investments” can be downloaded from the Lipper website, here.
