The U.S. asset manager is no longer at the top of the industry's pecking order.

For a long time, U.S. asset manager Blackrock was number one. It was unquestionably the largest public listed institution in the asset management business.

But all of this changed suddenly at the end of September when it was replaced at the top by Blackstone, which was founded in 1985 in New York and specializes in private equity assets - or companies that are not yet publicly listed and still in private hands. The company has invested about $650 billion dollars to date in such vehicles and its guiding light is Stephen Schwarzman, who has amassed a fortune of almost $20 billion dollars and is currently the 64th wealthiest person in the world.

According to a list published by CL-Media Relations, Blackstone's market capitalization was $140.5 billion on 30 September 2021, significantly surpassing Blackrock's $128.4 billion.

The change at the top is understandable given the very high valuations for equities and the extremely low interest rate environment prevalent worldwide. This forces investors to search for assets outside the traditional stock and bond space. As a result, they usually land in private equity.

The Swiss Picture

Zug-based asset manager Partners Group has profited from this shift, ranking sixth in CL's ranking with a market capitalization of $44.6 billion, which makes it the largest Swiss asset manager worldwide.

The largest Swiss asset managers do not make the list as they are not pure plays. UBS, for example, which has a significant asset management business, has a current market capitalization of $63.5 billion.

Good Timing

Blackstone announced it was expanding to Switzerland in June by hiring Michael Mostert in its ‹Private Wealth Solutions› business, as finews.com then reported.

The timing for Blackstone's expansion is good. The M&A business is at full tilt and it is throwing off tremendous investment possibilities. Globally, M&A transactions to the end of May 2021 totaled $2.5 trillion dollars, up from a meagre pandemic-hit $940 billion a year earlier.

Focusing on Core Business

COVID-19 has led many companies to focus on their core businesses, which has led to a large number of divestments, sales and spin-offs, leading to significant investment potential.

Boom with the Super-rich

In addition, demand is booming among the super-rich for unconventional investment structures such as Special Purpose Investment Companies (SPACs) outside traditional asset classes.