MANAMA: PwC predicts MENA pension fund assets will grow by 8.8% a year to reach $5 trillion by 2020 from a 2012 total of $2.4 trillion.
The local population of the GCC countries, who work for government entities, are offered great state-administered pension funds hence the 2011-2012 YoY growth was 9%-16%.
Globally, PwC predicts pension fund assets will grow by 6.6% a year to reach $56.5 trillion by 2020 from a 2012 total of $33.9 trillion.
Research from PwC predicts that global assets under management (AuM) will rise to around $101.7 trillion by 2020, from a 2012 total of $63.9 trillion. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 6%.
The report, Asset Management 2020: A brave new world, also finds that assets under management in the SAAAME (South America, Asia, Africa, Middle East) economies are set to grow faster than in the developed world in the years leading up to 2020, creating new pools of assets that can potentially be tapped by the asset management (AM) industry. However, the majority of assets will still be concentrated in the US and Europe.
PwC predicts that assets under management (AuM) in the Middle East and Africa will rise to $1.5 trillion by 2020, from a 2012 total of $0.6 trillion. This represents a CAGR of nearly 12%.
Family businesses in the ME (Middle East) are very powerful and influential, unlike other economies, 75% of the private sector activity is controlled by family businesses.
The overall population in the ME is young; with most people in their mid-career and more people entering employment than retiring shows the strong potential of pension fund growth.
Penetration of the AM industry in MENA is still low compared to global markets; mutual funds under management in 2012 was around 2.5% of market capitalization hence there is huge potential available to local and international players. It is worth identifying that MENA based high net worth individuals (HNWI) are moving their wealth back from developed markets to the region; AMs and private banks have doubled their share of assets in the past decade. Furthermore, PwC has seen interest from foreign private banks to set-up operations in the GCC following strong economic fundamentals.
“Amid unprecedented economic turmoil and regulatory change, most asset managers have not had time to bring the future into focus. But the industry stands on the precipice of a number of fundamental shifts that will shape the future of the asset management industry,”
Graham Hayward, Middle East Financial Services Leader, at PwC, said.
“Strong branding and investor trust in 2020 will only be achieved by those firms that avoid making mistakes that attract the ire of investors, regulators and policymakers. Asset managers must deliver the clear message that they deliver a positive social impact to investors and policymakers. The efforts required to satisfy investors and policymakers cannot be left to others.
“The coming years will bring the industry higher volumes of assets than ever before which places more responsibility on firms to manage these assets to the best of their collective ability. Asset managers must clearly outline the value they bring to customers while being fully transparent over fees and costs.”
Mass affluent (those with wealth between USD 100,000 and USD 1m) clients and high-net-worth-individuals (wealth of USD 1 million or more) in SAAAME regions are key drivers of growth. From more than $59 trillion and $52 trillion, respectively in 2012, assets owned by mass affluent and HNWI investors are expected to rise to more than $100 trillion and $76 trillion respectively by 2020. The growth is expected to be higher for the mass affluent sector (with a CAGR of 6.8%) than for HNWIs (4.9%). The single greatest contributor to this surge in mass affluent and HNWI assets is increasing SAAAME wealth. Mass affluent clients in SAAAME regions will, for instance, more than double their wealth between 2012 and 2020.
The size of SWFs is rising fast and their presence in international capital markets is becoming more prominent. SWFs’ AuM is currently above $5 trillion and PwC predicts this figure will surge to nearly $9 trillion by 2020. SWFs based in the Middle East and Africa will grow the fastest, with Asia Pacific also seeing a rapid rise in SWF assets.
Global data indicates that GCC AMs control over half of the global sharia compliant fund assets. In 2012, the global Sukuk issuance was valued at over $100 billion; Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were the main sharia fund management centres along with Malaysia. Since Islamic investors have a limited scope of products they can invest in, they look for access to other products such as mutual funds to diversify their portfolio.
“The response to the gamechangers we’ve identified will require considerable thought in order to create great strategy – there is no silver bullet to building the successful asset manager of 2020 and beyond,” Bhavin Shah, Middle East based Asset Management expert, at PwC, said.
“The successful asset managers of 2020 will have already started to shape their responses to some or all of these gamechangers. Those that develop coherent strategies and act with integrity towards clients are likely to build the brands that are not only successful in 2020, but that are still trusted in 2020.”