EDHEC and EuroPerformance have released their 2007 rankings of the top French asset management companies for long-only equity funds: the Alpha League Table.
EDHEC and EuroPerformance have released their 2007 rankings of the top French asset management companies for long-only equity funds: the Alpha League Table.

These second rankings for France reveal considerable stability in the production of alpha, with 17 of the 25 ranked companies appearing for the second time. This confirms that the alpha being produced is the result of a management process that is more to do with the talent of the asset managers than with the configuration of the markets.

• The top spot goes to a non-specialist, ODDO Asset Management, with second place taken by a subsidiary of the HSBC Group, HSBC Private Bank France. The third podium position goes to Martin Maurel Gestion, an asset management branch of Banque Martin Maurel, a specialist in wealth management.
• An analysis of the results shows that alpha remains the domain of the specialists, even in the major French networks, where it is the specialist subsidiaries that reveal the greatest capacity to generate alpha. Most of the top ten places are awarded to independent companies.
• For the whole of the equities market, the proportion of funds that deliver significant alpha is around 30%. This frequency measure provides investors with the probability that a fund will deliver a performance that is superior to the remuneration that might normally be expected from the risks to which the portfolio is exposed.
• In terms of investment zones, the French Equities class tops the table with almost 24% of funds generating alpha. This is followed by International Equities (21%), European Equities (13%) and North American Equities (9%). In comparison to the previous Alpha League Table, these figures represent a drop-off in the French Equities class (24% as against 46% in 2006) and a concordant and significant rise in international and European investment.

EDHEC stated: 'The analysis of exposure to style factors reveals considerable sensitivity to small and mid caps in the Euro Zone, France and Europe, with more of an emphasis on large caps in Asia, North America and the International Zone. Our second French-based ranking confirms the information acquired from the first: alpha on the European markets is quite sensitive to small caps, while on the more distant markets asset managers seek alpha through investment in large caps.'