UBS Global Asset Managementhas repeated its success in theMoney Management/AssirtFund Manager of the Year Award by taking out top honours with a second back- to-back win of the most prestigious prize in the funds management industry.
The win caps off similar successes in the Australian fixed interest and property securities categories, which the group also won last year.
It also notched up a place as a finalist in the Australian equities and multi-sector categories, once again echoing its performance in last year’s awards where it was a finalist in Australian equities.
In fact, the theme of ongoing success was also apparent, with the finalists for the overall award taken up byBarclays Global InvestorsandCredit Suisse Asset Management, which was a finalist last year after taking out the overall award in 2001.
Credit Suisse was successful in the international equities category, while Barclays was a finalist in both the Australian equities and multi-sector categories.
This year’s awards also marked the appearance ofIOOF, Dimensional Fund Advisors,BNP Paribas,Maple Brown AbbottandCitigroupfor the first time as finalists across a range of categories.
Boutique investment groupInvestors Mutualalso secured its second successive win, taking out the Australian equities award again and scoring top honours in the newly introduced category of Rising Star ahead of Dimensional Fund Advisors andHunter Hall Investment Managers.
The Rising Star Award is a new addition to the annual awards which have been presented byMoney Managementand Assirt since 1987, and it joins a second new award being presented for the first time this year in the category of Alternative Assets.
This award was taken out byVertex Capital Managementfrom finalistsPlatinum Asset ManagementandColonial First State.
The addition of the two new awards marks a shift in the industry with an increasing numbers of managers who have a boutique background or make use of investment strategies with an absolute return objective.
The Rising Star award highlights new and emerging managers, while the Alternative Assets award recognises that absolute return managers need to be treated differently as their aim is about achieving risk-adjusted returns, not about beating a benchmark.
The win for UBS also creates another milestone, with the group becoming only the second manager to have won back-to-back overall awards after Colonial First State took out the award in 1998 and 1999.
Despite not chalking up a win since then, Colonial andBTare the only groups to have won the overall award more than twice, with Colonial taking the award home on three occasions and BT winning four times.
The award caps off the best year for the UBS business, according to managing director John Larum who says the group has shifted its focus from its wholesale background to the retail market over the last 12 months.
Part of that drive has been to see UBS listed on more platforms, as well as increasing the number of products on each platform.
According to business development executive director Colin Woods, UBS is now on more than 90 per cent of the major platforms, with each carrying an average of four to eight products.
Woods says this is part of an ongoing push into retail, which it began three years ago after the group began operations in Australia in 1985. Since making that change, the group has boosted its funds under management from $500 million in December 2000, to $2.8 billion today.
