Thursday, July 6, 2017 Stamford, CT USA — The pool of institutional assets available to investment managers competing for business in Asia is expanding—despite the end of a spectacular 10-year run of growth for Asian institutional assets overall. Although that is good news for all asset managers competing in the region, it could be particularly beneficial to PIMCO, which Asian institutions name as the leader in manager service quality. 

“Although PIMCO was the sole winner for 2017, Wellington Asset Management and Amundi Asset Management should also be recognized for the distinguished level of service quality they deliver to their institutional clients,” says Greenwich Associates Managing Director Markus Ohlig. 

Asian Asset Growth Stalls

For the first time in a decade, growth in Asia’s institutional assets stalled last year, with total assets remaining roughly flat from 2016-2017. “China’s heavy spending in support of the Yuan eroded the country’s account surpluses and helped put the brakes on the long-term buildup of institutional assets in the Asian region,” explains Greenwich Associates consultant Parijat Banerjee.

Despite that slowdown, asset managers should remain optimistic about their short-term prospects, as institutions are diversifying their portfolios and are allocating growing shares of investment assets to external managers. As they shift to new asset classes, institutions as making more use of outside managers and are creating new opportunities for asset managers – especially among midsize Asian institutions without resources to support comprehensive internal investment functions in unfamiliar asset classes.  

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