Abu Dhabi: Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, plans to continue to expand globally and forge new partnerships especially in Europe and Asia to grow its business, its chief executive officer said in Abu Dhabi.
With $1.633 trillion (Dh5.99 trillion) in assets under management, Amundi is active in 37 countries, including in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. The firm, headquartered in France offers expertise in the areas of fixed income, equities, real and alternative assets, and treasury across public and private markets.
“We plan to continue to expand in each of our business lines, in all countries and accelerate penetration among institutional and corporate clients. We are also looking at distribution partnerships, in particular in Europe and Asia,” said Yves Perrier speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi.
In the next three years, Amundi will be focusing on ESG integration, strengthen support for institutional clients, doubling of high environmental and social impact thematic funds as well as strengthening of advisory role in institutional investors’ consideration of ESG criteria.
The company has a growing investor base in the Middle East with a broad range of institutional and retail clients. The clients in the region include sovereign wealth funds, central banks, pension funds, corporates, and private banks, among others.
“We are committed to the region. We have a long-term strategy for the region.” He also said the company is targeting of one billion euros of net income in 2020 provided there is no collapse of the market.
“In Asia, we are present in almost all the countries. We are present in Japan and manage more than $40 billion in retail and in institutional investors. We are present in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan among others. We have three joint ventures in China, India and South Korea.”
On the global economic growth for 2019, he said there are three parameters for the evolution of markets, one is the economic growth, the second is the policy of the central banks, third is geo-politics.
“The global economic growth will be satisfactory, above 3 per cent. The growth in the US will be bit less than the last year, same in Europe and in most of the emerging economies, the growth will be at good level.”
“We consider that the central bank will continue an accommodative monetary policy. We don’t see Fed increasing interest rate frequently and it is the same for ECB. They will adapt to the economic growth. If the economic growth is under what is anticipated, the monetary policies will be even more accommodative.”
Speaking on geo political parameters, he said this is something new and everyone should get used to the trend. “The world has been quite simple in the past, it has been simple after the Second World War and simple after the collapse of the Soviet Union with the domination of the US, now we are in a multipolar world, the centre of gravity of the world is changing, going from west to the east. New powers emerging, of course China, India so on. The friction between countries will be more frequent than in the past. That doesn’t mean that we will enter in chaos and collapse but more friction. I am slightly positive for the year to come due to economic growth and the policies of the central banks.”
