Internet killed the Wall Street star
Mercury Asset Management was the surprise winner of this year's Primark Extel Survey for best fund-management firm, announced on July 9. A surprise, at least, to City Index, the one financial institution proud to encourage gambling, which was giving MAM odds of only 6 to 1 while it was taking bets on hot favourites Fidelity and Morgan Grenfell Asset Management (MGAM) at 7 to 4. The pollsters were among the 300 firms that comprise the EuroTOP300 index.
"I was thinking about the clients MAM had lost in the UK," says a relaxed David Buik, financial marketing manager for City Index, "and underestimating how incredibly influential they are in Europe".
Buik also blinked at the paucity of interest shown in SG Asset Management, quoted at 25 to 1, despite its haul of high-profile managers from MGAM, including superwoman Nicola Horlick.
Merrill Lynch was, predictably, Extel's broker of the year, and Commerzbank Global Equities took the "rising star" brokerage award. City Index gave no odds on the Merrill certainty and had Commerzbank at 7 to 2, behind HSBC (7 to 4), which was narrowly defeated by Charterhouse Securities (not quoted) and Salomon Smith Barney (8 to 1).