According to the Pensions & Investments/ Towers Watson World 500 survey this brings the number of Australian investment managers up from 2010 by five, with an aggregate level of FUM in excess of US$ 1 trillion for the first time.
"These outcomes shine a positive light on the relative strength of the Australian industry," Towers Watson in Australia head of research Hugh Dougherty said.
"Unlike the previous year, this most recent positive growth in the aggregate level of funds under management was not significantly influenced by an appreciation of the Australian dollar. Rather, the growth reflected a mix of other factors that could be best described as organic growth, acquisition growth and market valuation shifts."
Macquarie is the largest Australian manager, moving up three places from 2010 to be ranked 66 with $US 267,163 in assets.
In contrast, volatile markets meant that global investment managers experienced a decline in FUM to a level below the US$64 trillion recorded in 2006.
The 20 largest global asset management firms saw their share of asset falling significantly and will need to increase efficiently to remain profitable.
"Developments in the second half of 2011 and into 2012 further remind us that the weak underlying economic fundamentals have no changed much and that risk appetites remain subdued among institutional investors" Mr Dougherty said.
"Investors are quite rightly becoming far less tolerant of paying active management fees for simply getting market exposure and are looking to obtain the latter as cheaply and efficiently as they can."
Australian investment managers in global 500 ranking, 31 December 2011
Rank Manager Total Assets (US$ million)
1 66 Macquarie Bank Group 267,163
2 100 Commonwealth Bank Group 144,375
3 105 AMP 125,174
4 143 NAB/MLC 77,051
5 147 Westpac/ BT 74,690
6 160 QIC 61,644
7 240 Industry Funds Management 31,940
8 251 Challenger Financial 30,083
9 263 QBE 26,928
10 284 Perpetual 22,991
11 309 Perennial Investment 18,580
12 313 Platinum Asset Management 18,125
13 334 GPT Group 15,058
14 345 Dexus Property Group 13,939
15 358 Insurance Australia Group 12,926
16 394 Charter Hall Group 10,267
17 399 Goodman 10,073
18 406 Lend Lease 9,804
19 409 Maple-Brown Abbott 9,440
20 451 JCP Investment Partners 7,226
21 470 Paradice Investment 6,378
22 473 Northcape Capital 6,206
23 488 Access Capital Advisors 5,596
Total 1,005,657
Source: Pensions & Investments/Towers Watson World 500 survey
