EUROPE - Eleven Europe-based asset management firms, including Petercam Asset Management and Capital International, were rewarded last night for excellence in institutional asset management offerings, at the inaugural IPE-EDHEC Institutional Asset Management Awards.

At a ceremony in Paris on June 12, a new range of awards were unveiled to acknowledge the quality of asset management returns presented to institutional investors, which are based not just on portfolio returns but take into account the risk management applied.

Analysis of the funds was undertaken by Telekurs Financial's EuroPerformance, and considered not just the active portfolio management - alpha - but looked at the long-term allocation choices - beta - as well as the risk management.

More importantly, the strict rules of this quantitative evaluation process means five of the 16 awards initially proposed - within the bonds categories - were dropped because no company achieved alpha in 2007, according to the IPE-EDHEC criteria.

IPE and EDHEC officials behind the event said this makes it all the more important to reward the initial 11 award winners, which are:

Asian Equities: DWS Investments & Jupiter Asset Management (joint winners) Asian Equities ex Japan: Franklin Templeton Institutional Euro Equities: State Street Global Advisors European Equities: JO Hambro Capital Management US Equities: Janus Capital Management International Equities: Petercam Asset Management International Emerging Markets Bonds: Pioneer Investments International High Yield Bonds: Capital International European Balanced and Absolute Returns: Morley (now Aviva Global Investors) International Balance and Absolute Return: Union Investment. Rules and methodology of the IAMAs were validated by an advisory committee of 12 representatives from Europe's pension fund industry.

More information about he awards and methodology is available on the EDHEC website at www.edhec-risk.com.

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