EUROPE - The asset management divisions of AXA, Barclays and Societe Generale all posted multi-billion rises in assets under management.

AXA said its asset management units AXA Investment Managers and AllianceBernstein posted combined net inflows of €39bn.

AXA IM gained €15bn while AllianceBernstein had €23bn in net inflows. Total asset management revenues increased by 31% to €2.1bn.

Barclays Global Investors had net inflows of £17bn (euro) although total assets under management of £877bn fell from the 2005 year-end level of £881bn due to adverse exchange rate movements.

BGI's pre-tax profit rose 51% to £364m. Total headcount rose by 100 to 2,400.

Parent Barclays disclosed that its group IAS 19 pension deficit across all schemes had falledn to £1.8bn from £2.8bn at the end of last year.

Societe Generale Asset Management reported net inflows of €8.9bn in the quarter - and €21.3bn in the first half. Its assets under management rose to €334bn

"The performance in the second quarter was in particular attributable to strong inflows into alternative investment products, which accounted for 49% of total inflows in the quarter," the bank said.

Outstanding assets under management rose to €397bn at the end of June.

Assets under custody for institutional investors rose 18.9% to €1.5trn.

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