European institutional assets were €5.2trn at end-2009, up 8.3% from previous year (€5.2trn) Total AUM of IPE's Top 400 Managers 2010 is €29.1trn (€23.4trn in 2009) Increase in AUM of 24.3% over 2009 BlackRock accounts for 7.9% of assets in study and is largest manager at €2.3trn following merger with BGI Amundi (merger of CAAM and SGAM) is now eighth largest manager Top 100 managers account for 85% of assets (€24.7trn) of Top 400

The net volume of European institutional assets increased by 8.3% over the 12 months to the end of 2009, according to data supplied to IPE by the leading 400 asset managers with business in Europe.

Total assets for European pension funds, foundations, charities and endowments totalled €5.2trn as at 31 December 2009, compared with €4.8trn for end-2008.

The figures appear in the IPE Top 400 Asset Managers 2010 supplement, which is published with the June issue of IPE.

Despite good investment performance, and representing a maturing defined benefit pensions sector, total institutional assets remain some €900bn short of the €6.1trn total reported for 2007.

Total assets for the entire sample of the leading global investment houses that manage European money are €29.1trn, compared with €23.4trn for the previous year.

A markedly different top 10, in terms of overall AUM, follows 12 months of merger and acquisition activity.

BlackRock has shot up to number one in both the ranking of global AUM and European institutional AUM.

Following the merger with Barclays Global Investors, it quadrupled its European institutional assets under management to €465.8bn.

With total AUM of €2.3trn, it accounts for 7.9% of the €29.1trn total assets in the study.

Legal & General Investment Management - fourth-placed last year - narrowly overtook Natixis Global Asset Management to grab second place in terms of European institutional assests, boasting a 33% increase in AUM over 2009 to €269.8bn.

Natixis itself registered an increase in AUM of only 8.1% over last year to €267.4bn.

Further down the rankings, Amundi - the product of the union between CAAM and SGAM - appears in eighth place.

Last year, CAAM was fourteenth biggest, while SGAM was twenty-eighth.

An enlarged BNP Paribas Investment Partners comes in at ninth, having absorbed Fortis Investments.

As in previous years, all data in the study was collected by IPE's research department in the early months of 2010 and reflects the market situation as of 31 December 2009.

On a broader scale, the market rally of 2009 - which afforded some respite to a cost-conscious industry after the precipitous drop in AUM in 2008 - has led to a welcome increase in the total AUM of this year's 400 sample to €29.1trn.

This represents a 24.3% rise over the €23.4trn total recorded last year.

However, this total does not quite reach the heights of IPE's 2008 study, when combined AUM were €33.9trn.

The data continues to reflect a marked concentration in AUM clout among the top players.

The top 100 asset managers this year account for 85% of total AUM after removing double-counting from the sample.

Parent companies, such as Allianz Global Investors, are included, while their subsidiaries are not.

Total AUM for that group is €24.7trn, up from €19.6trn (84%) in last year's study.

Not surprisingly, the AUM of those managers ranked from 101 to 200 account for just 11% (€3.2trn) of the total.

For those ranked 201 to 300, the combined AUM are 3% (€910bn), with 1% (€212.5bn) for the 301 to 400 group.

Electronic and paper versions of IPE Top 400 Asset Managers 2010 are available for sale from Emma Morgan-Jones on +44 20 7261 4617 or morgan.jones@ipe.com