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The number of management companies, which has increased steadily since 2005, reached a record high of 604 at 31 December 2012. After growth stalled in 2008 and 2011, the net volume of assets under management (AuM) rebounded 3.8 per cent year-on-year to €2,599 billion in 2012. The uptrend is chiefly due to gains on equity and fixed-income markets, since net inflows were modest.
Nonetheless, overall operating profit contracted a further 7 per cent in 2012, continuing the downtrend that began in 2007. A new campaign to rationalise fixed costs did reduce expenses but not by enough to offset the decline in income, caused mainly by the compression of management fees. The operating margin, which has been falling 1 per cent per year since 2010, reached 18 per cent in 2012.
The rebound in AuM volume in 2012 does not lessen the major challenges facing the French asset management industry, which include net outflows, falling profitability and an increasingly competitive environment. The industry now has to deal with new strategic issues, which should encourage it to seize new opportunities such as those offered by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, which came into force last summer.
The study of OPCIs to 31 December 2012 shows that assets managed by these investment funds grew steadily over the period under review. Gross AuM totalled €26.3 billion, a 23% increase on the previous year. Growth was not accompanied by any major changes in the nature of the invested assets, with offices properties and the greater Paris area continuing to attract the majority of investors. Two significant developments identified by the study were a substantive reduction in debt as a percentage of AuM and an increase in the number of vehicles aimed at the general public.