AXA IM has announced its assets under management at the end of December 2014 hit a record €623bn, up 14% per cent from €547bn in 2013.
Net new inflows accounted for €19bn, dominated by third party clients, and €58bn came from market and foreign exchange rate impact.
Andrea Rossi, CEO of AXA IM, said: “Our priority as a business is to grow our third party assets, while continuing to serve and support the AXA Group around the world. I am therefore delighted to see that the majority of our €19bn in net new money inflows in 2014 came from non-AXA clients across both the institutional and wholesale markets. Positive growth in net new money, AuM, revenues and underlying earnings provide a solid base from which to accelerate our growth in 2015.”
Expansion plans for AXA IM in 2015 are targeting several areas. AXA IM wants to make its third party business growing in both the US and Canada. In 2014, in the US, the company strengthened its teams into boosting the RFP team and hiring a new head of Client Group, Stephen Sexeny. A participating affiliate agreement was established, that means the firm will be able to sell in the US market products managed in the UK.
After the hire of a team dedicated to the service of its Nordic clients in February, the firm plans to strengthen its presence in Latin America focusing on Mexico, Colombia and Peru and also targets to develop business in Chile, “where the company has been active with local pension fund clients for over 10 years.”
For the Asia Pacific area, AXA IM is also seeking a growth of its profile, client base and product offering. The company underlined its joint ventures in this area were performing well in 2014 and made “a strong contribution” to net new money inflows.
Rossi commented: “We are becoming more and more global. Today, we employ over 2,300 people, including 250 portfolio managers, in 28 cities across 21 countries. We now employ more than 150 people in the US and over 100 in Asia, not including our JVs. We will continue to expand our global footprint, but in a targeted fashion.”
He added: “We want to accelerate our growth in key mature markets where we don’t yet have a significant market share, such as the US, Japan and the Nordics. In high growth markets, such as Asia and Latin America, we will continue to develop our distribution coverage. We will also strengthen our historically robust positions in Europe by reinforcing our presence in the retail and unit-linked markets.”
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