12.11.2004 – 16:22

Institutional Investor Magazine

UBS Takes Top Honors For the Seventh Straight Year in Institutional Investor Magazine's Euro 100 Ranking

New York, November 12 (ots/PRNewswire)

For the seventh year
running, UBS tops the Euro 100, Institutional Investor magazine's
annual ranking of Europe's largest money managers by assets under
management, published in the November issue. The Swiss bank managed a
total of euro 1.4 trillion at year-end 2003. Munich-based Allianz
Group, with euro 935 billion under its purview, takes second place
for a second year, and Barclays Global Investors of London, with euro
847 billion under management, surges from sixth place to third.

Last year total assets of the Euro 100 grew by only 5.3 percent,
to euro 14.5 trillion, despite strong equity market appreciation -- a
28.7 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index and a 17.4
percent gain in the MSCI EAFE index.

European money managers face ever more demanding clients, who are
suspicious of size -- and increasingly skeptical about the promises
of active management. As more and more pension funds turn to index
funds for their beta and high-octane strategies such as hedge funds
for their alpha, traditional active managers are feeling the pinch.
Indeed, BGI and State Street Global Advisors, both of which offer
index funds and hedge funds, have profited from this trend; BGI's
three-notch climb is the biggest gain among the top 10 managers in
the Euro 100, while archrival State Street rises from No. 23 to No.
18.

Here are the five largest firms ranked in the 2004 Euro 100:

Assets
                                                 under Mgmt
             Rank   Firm                   (euro  millions)
               1    UBS                      euro 1,416,853
               2    Allianz Group                   934,690
               3    Barclays Global Investors       846,930
               4    AXA Group                       775,000
               5    Credit Suisse Group             769,295

Boutiques -- some decades old, others just start-ups -- are
thriving. London-based Marathon Asset Management debuts in the Euro
100 at No. 99, with euro 17 billion in assets. In the three years
ended December 31, 2003, Marathon topped the charts of all global
equity managers, with an average annual return of 27 percent. And
some midsize firms are prospering too. Edinburgh-based Baillie
Gifford & Co., with euro 38.5 billion under management, moves up
seven places in the ranking to No. 76, posting the biggest gain, in
terms of places, of any firm in the Euro 100.

Based on a survey of hundreds of institutions, II's Euro 100 ranks
European firms and firms based in Europe based on global assets under
management. Non-European firms are ranked on their assets derived
from Europe and non-European assets slated for investment there. All
data is as of December 31, 2003.

For the complete article and more details on the ranking, please
visit http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/pr.

Web site: http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/pr

Contact:

Kim Lemmonds of Institutional Investor magazine, +1-212-224-3650,
klemmonds@institutionalinvestor.com