Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi has posted inflows across its passive, ETF and smart beta ranges in the first half of the year.
In its H1 2019 results, the firm’s passive, ETF and smart beta products saw positive flows of €6.9bn, taking its total assets under management (AUM) to €114bn, as at June.
ETFs captured the bulk of these flows with investors pouring €4.2bn into Amundi’s range in the first six months of the year.
This meant the French asset manager leapfrogged rival UBS Asset Management to become Europe’s fourth-biggest ETF provider after the Swiss manager suffered outflows of €5bn in Q2.
Amundi’s ETF range now has €48.7bn AUM versus €48bn for UBS AM, according to data from Morningstar.
The increase in inflows can partially be explained by Amundi’s decision to enter the core-ETF space with a nine-strong range in March. It is well documented how core building block products continue to dominate flows in Europe. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the suite has pulled in $250m.
Yves Perrier (pictured), chief executive of Amundi, said the firm had continued to focus on strengthening its passive arm with “targeted recruitment”.
As part of this, Amundi poached Ashley Fagan from BlackRock, to head up its ETF, indexing and smart beta development for the UK and Ireland in January while it also hired Marco Strohmeier as head of ETF, indexing and smart beta sales for Switzerland in March.
Perrier commented: “In the first half of 2019, Amundi confirmed the solidity of its business model. The firm has continued to strengthen its organisation with targeted recruitment (mainly for passive management and real assets).”
