June 18, 2020

Independent active boutique managers have outperformed both non-boutiques and passive indexing over the last 20 years, with highest excess returns during years of elevated volatility

January 01, 2020

Evidence from the European Fund Management Industry. 

There exists evidence in the performance evaluation literature that mutual funds that are manufactured by large asset management groups with large “fund families” benefit from economies of scale in terms of marketing, distribution and resourcing that accrue from the larger organisation. In this paper we examine the performance of funds that are managed by “boutique” asset managers that tend to be small and which tend to offer a more focussed fund range. Using European mutual fund data, we find evidence to suggest the existence of a boutique asset management premium. This premium is particularly pronounced in the European Mid/Small Cap and the Global Emerging market fund sectors, where we find it to be both economically and statistically significant; a finding that is robust to the factor model used to calculate alphas. These results suggest in particular, that if an investor is looking to invest in a European Mid/Small Cap or Emerging Market equity fund, then they should give serious consideration to investing with a Boutique fund manager. 

The importance of family businesses is undeniable. Although results vary depending on what is meant by family business, statistics show that they account for 50‐80% of GDP in most economies.1 Yet despite this importance, there are no conclusive findings about the relationship between family businesses and value creation. Against this backdrop, this first BANCA MARCH‐IE2 study is a major contribution to the analysis of this relationship. This is because it takes a new and more complete approach than previous studies in this field by covering both a larger number of indicators and also a longer time frame that makes it possible to examine the long‐term creation of value.   The study sample consisted of a total of 2,423 companies listed on various European stock markets during the period 2001‐2010.  

Families are also commonly blockholders in listed companies (Burkart et al., 2003). In the U.S., for example, one third of the companies in the S&P 500 are family firms (Anderson and Reebs, 2003) while in Asia and Latin America families control more than 50% of listed companies (Credit Suisse, 2011, Martínez et al., 2007). They are also highly significant in Europe where it is estimated that a large majority of listed companies are still family controlled (La Porta, Lopez de Silanes, 1999). It is also the case that the founding family’s control endures even after it leaves management positions (Burkart et al., 2003).