AXA IM  

Axa IM sees inflows drop to £7bn

Axa IM sees inflows drop to £7bn

Axa Investment Managers saw net inflows of €7.9bn (£7bn) during 2017.

This was a decline from the previous year, when Axa IM saw net new money of €56.7bn (£50bn).

The asset manager said this decline was due to a drop in inflows from its joint ventures, which Axa IM said it had expected and was driven in part by a number of products reaching maturity and not being replaced due to new regulatory requirements relating to the Chinese joint venture.

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Axa IM stated: "It is worth noting that this is a low margin business so the outflows have had a very limited financial impact."

Despite this the asset manager announced underlying earnings grew by 14 per cent at €257m (£227m) in 2017

Andrea Rossi, chief executive of Axa IM, said: "2017 was a particularly strong year for us in terms of successes for our institutional business, leveraging our close relationship and the work we do for the Axa Group, while we also made advances in the retail space.

"In 2018, we will continue to focus on our strengths to accelerate our development through continued product innovation to match the evolving needs of our clients.

"Our expertise and capabilities as an active manager provide us with a crucial advantage in navigating today’s challenging markets and capturing the evolving opportunities driven by global megatrends."

The company stated it was looking to extend its fixed income offering by further diversifying the product mix and client base with a move to higher yielding assets and more flexible solutions.

This will include adding total return credit products to the product range and continuing to grow the buy and maintain expertise as an alternative to passive.

Axa IM also highlighted that 71 per cent of the firm's cross-border funds in the first and second quartiles for 2017.

There was also "significant growth" across a number of its disciplines such as alternatives, specialist fixed income products and multi-asset solutions, which were in high demand from institutional clients.

Assets under management at the end of December 2017 were €746bn (£659bn), up 4 per cent or €29bn (£25.6bn) compared with 2016.

Revenues were €1.2bn (£1bn), up 6 per cent or €77m (£68m) compared with 2016, due to higher average assets and an enhanced product mix.

Meanwhile Architas, which is part of the Axa Group, saw net new money in the UK hit £867m for 2017 while globally this was €2.12bn (£1.8bn).

Total assets on Architas reached €43.7bn (£38.6bn) at the end of 2017.