Asia's Top Money Managers
Asian institutional investors, like Asian stock markets, are under stress as global economies cool and global politics heat up. Most of the region's economies are faltering, and Asian stock markets are depressed but volatile. Meanwhile, deposits are generally hovering around zero. To try to eke out more of a return under these unforgiving circumstances, institutional investors are pursuing investments, such as hedge funds, that purport to minimize market risk. For their part, retail investors are seeking out investments that they believe they can count on, like "guaranteed" mutual funds.
These and other trends have had mixed effects on Asian asset managers in our annual rankings. Generally speaking, though, it's been a tough year all around. Many firms saw their assets under management decline. In Japan the Postal Life Insurance Bureau - Kampo - came out on top, as usual. But last year's No. 2, Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Group, traded places with the No. 3 Nippon Life Insurance Group. Australia's AMP Henderson Global Investors again placed atop that country's ranking, by a wide margin, as did Hong Kong SAR Exchange Fund on that island. Among international managers, the most conspicuous shift was Deutsche Asset Management's surge from No. 12 in 2000 to No. 2 (replacing Schroder Investment Management, now No. 5). Chief reason: Deutsche Bank's purchase of Bankers Trust Co.
How the rankings were compiled Institutional Investor's seventh annual ranking of Asia's largest institutional investors includes banks, insurance companies, pension funds, independent fund managers and firms domiciled in 11 Asian countries, as well as 20 international managers with significant investments in the region, though the assets are not necessarily managed there. Subsidiaries with substantial assets under management have generally been listed separately.
The rankings were compiled from a variety of sources, including questionnaires filled out by the institutions themselves. In many cases, II refined this data through follow-up faxes, e-mails and telephone calls. In some cases, researchers culled information from annual reports or tried to get data from finance ministries and regulators. When no official data was available, II obtained figures from actuaries, brokerage firms, consultants and company Web sites. Estimates, marked with a footnote, account for the remaining numbers. When possible, figures are broken into regional and asset categories.
II staffers sought to make the numbers as comparable as possible, given the different levels of disclosure and varying accounting practices in use across Asia. In most instances, the "miscellaneous" column includes loans. Inevitably, there is double counting of assets in some countries because of the lack of disclosure standards and the variety of sources needed to reach an approximate total figure for some money managers.
Because of currency conversion and rounding, breakdown figures may not add up to the sum of total assets.