EUROPE – Fidelity Investment Services has been voted the leading pan-European fund management firm in the Thomson Extel survey.

Fidelity retained the top spot it had last year. Second was Capital Group, also unchanged from 2002. Merrill Lynch Investment Managers moved up from fourth to third.

Fidelity’s Cedric de la Chaise was voted leading pan-European individual fund manager. UBS Global Asset Management’s Steve Walker was second while Andy Griffiths of Capital International was third.

The survey, the 30th, polled almost 3,500 people at 913 buy-side firms, which Thomson Extel said represents 9.6 trillion dollars under management.

It added that 93 brokerage firms and 206 of Europe’s largest quoted companies also took part. The top pan-European brokerage firm for equities was UBS.

Steve Kelly, head of the Thomson Extel Survey, said: "Once again, the willingness of analysts, fund managers and quoted companies to get involved in the Thomson Extel Survey has produced an exceptionally hard fought outcome, so much so that in one category, the honours have been shared.”

In the hedge fund category, Deutsche Bank was top with UBS second.

Fidelity manages 17.2 billion pounds (24.3 billion euros) for UK institutional clients, while worldwide it manages more than 570 billion pounds (804 billion euros) in assets worldwide.