Assets under management at Finland’s Mandatum Asset Management (MAM) saw healthy growth in the first quarter, exceeding several industry peers in the Nordic region.

External client assets under management reached EUR 10.77bn in the first quarter, up from EUR 10.3bn in the last quarter of 2022. The development presents a growth of 4.6% in AUM, according to AMWatch’s calculations and indicates that growth is gathering pace after the fourth quarter of 2022, when external client assets grew by 2%.

“Mandatum had a positive start to 2023 as the solid top-line trends continued during the first quarter,” Mandatum Group writes on its results for Q1.

“Net flows to unit-linked and other third-party assets amounted to EUR 291m, supporting the 5% growth of these assets to EUR 10.8bn at the end of March 2023 from EUR 10.30bn at year-end 2022.”

Whilst the AUM growth of Mandatum Asset Management is lagging behind the AUM growth of Storebrand, Handelsbanken and Swedbank, it is still the strongest in the group of Finnish asset managers whose AUM development AMWatch monitors. 

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Demerger by October

MAM was launched by insurer Sampo Group as an independent asset management spinoff from its life-insurer Mandatum in late 2021. Mandatum Asset Management declined to do an interview with AMWatch, citing the demerging process Sampo Group is going through, as well as the silent period it is observing.

Sampo proposed in late March to demerge its subsidiary Mandatum this year. The group’s board also suggested that the asset manager be listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. The statement followed an earlier announcement in December 2022 in which Sampo said that it would review its ownership of Mandatum.

The company’s annual general meeting is expected to approve the partial demerger on May 17. The plan is to transfer all shares of subsidiary Mandatum to Mandatum plc by October 1, 2023.

In recent years, Sampo has taken several steps to simplify Sampo Group in line with its strategic focus on P&C insurance. The biggest move has been Sampo’s exit from Nordea, which was completed in April, 2022, through disposal of EUR 1.8bn worth of shares.

Nordic corporate bonds

MAM has a product range of 15 core strategies, investing in credit, alternatives and equities.

Earlier this week the company announced that Mandatum’s Nordic High Yield Total Return Fund had received the 2023 Europe Refinitiv Lipper Award for Best Fund over three years in the Bond Europe High Yield category. The fund invests in Nordic high yield corporate bonds. 

Alexander Gallotti, head of leveraged finance at MAM, said in a press release that a strategy focused on the Nordic markets requires a lot of work in terms of, for instance, target company selection, risk-return optimization and liquidity management. 

MAM has invested heavily in these areas in recent years, Gallotti said and added:

“Nordic corporate bonds still offer very competitive returns, and sustainability is strongly present in the Nordic market today.”