European corporate bond briefs soar
UK - The number of European corporate bond mandates being put out to tender by schemes has more than doubled, research from Mercer Oliver Wyman shows.
The financial services consultant – which conducted the research alongside its sister company Mercer Investment Consulting – surveyed 168 fund managers from 21 countries, serving clients in 26 European countries.
Mercer found that the number of eurozone corporate bond mandates that schemes put out to tender had gone up by 102% over the 12 months to December 31, 2002, while the number of government bond mandates had gone up by 77% over the same period.
Overall, the number of equity mandates put out to tender fell 7% during 2002, while the bond mandates increased by more than 4%.
Despite the huge surge in the number of bond mandates, Mercer found that the number of institutional products offered by managers remained virtually unchanged from 2001 and averaged 7.5.
It also found that 44% of managers had increased the number of products on offer, while only 31% reduced their product line-up.
Mercer partner Julia Hobart said: “Since profitability is linked to scale, there is a balance to strike between having enough assets in a product and sufficient diversification to withstand a particular area falling out of favour.
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