AXA RE tops INREV fund manager list in Europe

AXA Real Estate remains the largest fund manager in Europe with assets under management at end-2013 of €47.4 bn, according to the INREV/ANREV 2014 Fund Manager Survey.

Globally, the top two fund managers have traded places compared with the previous survey. Blackstone ousted Brookfield Asset Management as the top fund manager in 2013 with €78.6 bn of real estate AUM, against €78.3 bn for Brookfield. However, Brookfield is the largest fund manager in the US with AUM of €66.7 bn.

CBRE Global Investors is the third largest fund manager overall with AUM of €64.7 bn.

The survey is based on 147 fund managers with total assets under management (AUM) of €1.4 tln of which €522 bn (37%) is concentrated in the top 10 fund managers.

The survey found that the majority of real estate AUM is held in non-listed real estate at 51.5%.

In terms of where the capital is invested, the majority of funds by number are European vehicles (60.4%), while 21.7% target North America and 13% have an Asia Pacific strategy.
The share of non-listed debt products has increased to 3.2% from 2.8% in 2012.

‘The top of the tree has shifted again, but there isn’t much between the leading performers. There is a clear battle for domination at the top, with both the Blackstone Group and Brookfield managing total assets worth at least 50% more than any other firm outside the top three. Although the list contains no real surprises, our analysis highlights the diversity of approaches in terms of the breadth of investment vehicle type, geography and risk/return profile,’ said Matthias Thomas, CEO of INREV.