Macquarie outpaces rivals with $583 billion AUM



Australian asset managers have seen an increase in market share globally over the past decade with Macquarie ranked as the country’s largest asset manager.
Research from the Thinking Ahead Institute found assets at the world’s 500 largest asset managers had exceeded US $100 trillion for the first time.
In Australia, global market share had risen from 0.92% in 2009 to 1.55% in 2019.
The five largest players in Australia were Macquarie Group, IFM Investors, Colonial First State, AMP Capital and NAB Asset Management.
However, Macquarie Group was significantly larger than its nearest rival with US$412 billion compared to $163 billion for IFM Investors. Overall, Macquarie was the 60th-largest asset manager in the world.
These five firms were the only ones to have more than $100 billion in assets under management followed by Pendal Group which had $70 billion.
Globally, BlackRock remained the world’s largest asset manager with $7.4 trillion in assets followed by passive manager Vanguard which had $6.1 trillion.
The research found passively managed assets grew from $4.9 trillion in 2015 to $7.9 trillion in 2019 thanks to the wider availability of products.
Roger Urwin, co-founder of the Thinking Ahead Institute, said: “The investment industry has always been dynamic, but the pace of change is speeding up, manifested notably through consolidation. In addition, rapidly advancing technology is changing the shape of mandates and producing products that require less governance and are more streamlined.
“This has led to the growth of passive and index tracking, factor-based strategies and solutions. Private markets have also continued a significant growth trend in the last decade, during which investors have sought higher returns involving higher risk.”
Recommended for you
Clime Investment Management is overhauling the selection process for its APLs, with managing director Michael Baragwanath describing the threat of a product failure affecting clients as “pure nightmare fuel”.
Global X will expand its ETF range of exchange-traded funds next month with a low-cost Australian equity product as it chases ambitions of becoming a top issuer of ETFs in Australia.
Flows into Australasian sustainable funds have moved back into outflow territory in the second quarter of 2025 driven by US$400 million in redemptions from passive funds.
Flows into SPDR ETFs during the second quarter of 2025 have helped State Street to reach US$5 trillion in assets under management.