Despite adverse market conditions, Groupama Asset Management has maintained steady gains in 2018 with net inflows of subscriptions from its third-party distribution business reaching EUR1.42 billion.
Year after year, the third-party distribution business of Groupama Asset Management has continued to develop at a sustained pace. For example, the net inflow of subscriptions from external customers reached EUR1.420 billion by the end last year.
Total third-party assets under management stood at EUR20.5 billion on 31 December 2018, compared to EUR19.8 billion on 31 December 2017. Overall, the total assets under management, combining the assets managed on behalf of third parties and the assets managed on behalf of Groupama, stood at EUR99.4 billion.
Groupama says that these results are essentially due to two management segments that fully played their role as sources of growth, in line with the aims of the GAM 2.022 strategic plan – the distribution and international segments.
In geographical terms, Latin America and Spain contributed almost EUR950 million to net inflow, compared to almost 640 million for Italy. Globally, the distribution segment accounted for one billion euros in net subscription inflow.
Almost 37 per cent of the third-party assets under management come from international clients.
“In 2018, the asset management industry in France experienced a contraction of the institutional segment, in particular in the field of fixed-income asset management. Our efforts to diversify our sources of growth and to develop our activity on the third-party distribution market gave the necessary resilience to our business. Our partnership with Groupama Gan Vie, via USF (Unité de Solutions Financières) provided a foundation for marketing our funds in the field of unit-linked insurance plans, with net inflow of 414 million euros in 2018,” says Jean-Marie Catala, Deputy CEO of Groupama Asset Management.
In terms of strategies and asset classes, conviction-based management styles and high value-added solutions in niche segments have sparked the interest of investors. For example, the equity and convertibles strategies, in particular the Avenir and G Fund European Convertible Bonds fund ranges, made significant contributions to the net inflow (accounting for EUR326 million) and to the economic results of Groupama AM.
“As part of the GAM 2.022 plan, we aim to reach critical mass in our assets under management and to ensure our long-term organic growth. We plan to accelerate the sale of investment solutions to professionals in distribution and private investors. We also hope to maintain our market share in the institutional segment, a target group with which we have a long-standing natural affinity,” says Philippe Setbon (pictured), CEO of Groupama Asset Management.
“In 2019, we will also be concentrating our efforts along three key channels: continuing the deployment of our ESG strategy, with the ambition of establishing a transversal, cross-disciplinary approach common to each management team; integration of alternative financial and extra-financial data in our investment processes; and industrialisation of our profession, in particular via automation and the use of blockchain.”
“These innovations are unavoidable today if we are to remain competitive in an asset management industry that is exposed to numerous transformations.”
