Paperjam.lu

Things are looking up for “management companies” that run cross-border investment funds, PWC said this week. Pictured: The PWC logo is seen on its website homepage. Image: Shutterstock.com 

The “PWC Manco Index” stood at 203 points at the end of last year, up from 195 in December 2017. The index was part of the “Observatory for Management Companies 2019 Barometer” (PDF) released by PWC on 25 April.

Laurent Carême, a director at PWC in Luxembourg, stated in a press release:

“The fact that the PWC Manco Index has increased by 4.5% over the year is mainly driven by the number of staff and we can expect this positive trend to continue into 2019 as mancos recruit additional resources to fulfil gaps in different functions.”

PWC stated that Ucits manco employment rose 12% to “4,874 staff as of 31 December 2018”.

The trend “should continue in 2019”, the consultancy reckoned, partly driven by a circular issued last year by Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the CSSF, clarifying the rules around “substance”, or which functions have to be carried out in the grand duchy. 45% of “PWC Manco Survey 2019” respondents said they would need to recruit more staff to comply with the rules. Of those 45%, nearly two-thirds said they would hire between 1 and 3 full-time equivalent employees.

The number of fund outfits operating here has also risen. PWC counted “19 new entities” that opened up shop in Luxembourg last year. Pierre-Marie Bochereau, the firm’s management company observatory coordinator, stated in Thursday’s news release:

“A third of these entities are coming from the UK. We can easily make the link of these new additions as being due to the consequences of Brexit, and, among others, we have seen the arrival of such big players as Jupiter Asset Management International or M&G. One dynamic trend that we have also observed derives from the continuous success of the AIFM Directive. As of December 31, 2018, Luxembourg has 242 licensed AIFMs, representing an increase of 14 over a year.”

Total assets under management by Luxembourg mancos was down slightly from €3,401bn at the end of 2017 to €3,398bn at the end of 2018.

Top 10 Luxembourg mancos as of 31 December 2018 (assets under management), according to PWC:

  1. JPMorgan Asset Management (€277.4bn)
  2. DWS Investment (€175.3bn)
  3. Amundi Luxembourg (€154.8bn)
  4. Blackrock Luxembourg (€143.9bn)
  5. UBS Fund Management (€131bn)
  6. FIL Investment Management (€110.8bn)
  7. Schroder Investment Management (€109bn)
  8. Aberdeen Standard Investments (€90.7bn)
  9. Pictet Asset Management (€85.7bn)
  10. Eurizon Capital (€85bn)

PWC developed the report using its own surveys and analysis of publicly available figures from companies and regulators.