European Fund Giants Battle for Passive Investing Supremacy
France’s Amundi is poised to overtake Germany’s DWS in the surging market for low-cost exchange-traded funds.
Let the battle begin.
Photographer: Evening Standard/Hulton ArchiveJust two of Europe’s standalone fund managers clear the $1 trillion hurdle that separates the go-getters from the also-rans in the global game of managing other people’s money. And things are about to get spicy between France’s Amundi SA and Germany’s DWS GmbH.
Amundi has maintained a steady lead over DWS in recent years, posting twice the amount of assets under management quarter after quarter. On Thursday, the Paris-based firm announced a 9% year-on-year increase in the cash it oversees to more than 1.8 trillion euros ($2 trillion) at the end of the third quarter. That’s double the 880 billion euros DWS controlled at the end of September, which it boosted by 16% from the year-earlier period.