, Columnist
Deals Are Still the Best Balm for What Ails Fund Managers
Europe’s asset managers know they need to consolidate. Once one pulls the trigger, the rest will have to move swiftly.
Shake on it?
Source: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive
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News that Schroders Plc spent months debating a purchase of M&G Plc suggests the urge to merge remains strong among European fund managers. But the plan’s failure to ever reach formal talks shows that the drawbacks of combining investment firms are still a big deterrent to actually sealing a deal.
Relentless downward pressure on how much customers are willing to pay to have their money managed, the persistent flow toward low-cost index-tracking products, and the need to invest heavily in technology all mean that scale matters more than ever in the fund management industry.