Australian investment managers outperform

Good performances and the strength of the Australian dollar have helped advance the global rankings of Australian investment managers, according to new research released by Towers Watson.

Indicating Australia's position relative to other major economies, the research found that assets managed by Australia's largest investment managers increased significantly relative to their global peers last year.

It found that in Australia growth over the year had mostly been driven by market and organic growth. Similar to the global trend among investment mangers, growth had also been boosted by merger and acquisition activity, but also by the Australian dollar which had appreciated by 14 per cent relative to the US dollar.

Commenting on the research, Towers Watson head of research in Australia Hugh Dougherty said the strong performance by Australian fund managers and the strength of the Australian dollar had meant that all managers who were on last year's list had moved up the rankings.

He noted that in US dollar terms, total assets of the Australian top 500 managers grew by 49 per cent from US$568 billion to US$847 billion. For the first time since the global financial crisis, total assets of Australian managers in the top 500 list surpassed pre-GFC levels of US$691 billion set in 2007.

Dougherty said there were now 18 Australian managers in the research, more than any time previously and around 50 per cent higher than in 2009.

He said the largest Australian manager was Macquarie which ranked 69 overall, up from 116 in 2008 - something that was partly due to its acquisition of US manager Delaware.

The other Australian managers on the list are Commonwealth Bank, AMP, NAB, QIC, Westpac, Industry Funds Management, Challenger, Perennial, Platinum, Maple-Brown Abbott, IAG, Charter Hall Group, Balanced Equity Management, Lend Lease, Northcape Capital, JCP Investment Partners and Paradice Investments.