EUROPE – A new survey has found that multi-management accounts for just over four percent of European asset management offerings.

“Despite its popularity and success, multi-management only represents 4.14% of the existing offerings,” said Noel Amenc, professor of finance at Edhec Business School.

Speaking at a presentation in London this week, Amenc added that the most popular way of implementing multi-management offerings was via funds of funds.

Amenc was presenting the results of a survey on European asset management practices. Edhec had polled 60 European asset managers, with a total 6.2 trillion euros in assets under management.

Amenc, who is also director of research at Misys Asset Management Systems, foresaw growth in the so-called core/satellite approach, where the core is a “brand name” manager and the satellite is an alternative provider which generates returns above a benchmark, known as alpha.

Amenc dubbed core producers “beta factories”, a reference to their performance against a benchmark. But he said the survey respondents sought out alternative investments more to diversify than to seek out superior alpha. Just 17% mentioned the superior alpha of alternatives while 60% said they sought diversification. Amenc said there was a “different beta” in the alternative universe.