Established 30 years ago, AXA IM - Real Assets is currently the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, with £75bn in AuM.
"A rising rate environment, combined with continued uncertainty around trade and broader political risk, has the potential to lead to greater market volatility into the medium term," Andrew Douglas, Insurance Relationships AXA IM says. "Real Assets have the ability to provide an attractive alternative solution for our insurance clients, through stable and predictable income to negate balance sheet volatility."
AXA IM provides a broad real assets offering across various sectors, geographies in private or public markets, equity or debt, Douglas continues.
"Size tends to be an advantage with the ability to source attractive deals and deploy capital effectively in the market. Asset managers remain well placed to fill the gap left by regulatory and capital constrained banking institutions, and deliver attractive real asset solutions for insurers."
Beyond the strong AuM, judges commended Axa IM's breadth of investment expertise and the willingness to invest further into remaining at the top of the league table.
Judges also noted the firm's impressive list of achievement in 2018 which included the completion of £8bn of transactions in 2018; £3.5bn in acquisitions and £4.5bn in disposals.
Total YTD capital raising in 2018 stands at £5bn. YTD in 2018, AXA IM – Real Assets has raised a total of £2bn in capital for debt strategies, including c. £1.5bn in CRE debt and £500m in Infrastructure debt.
The firm's focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in its investment process also didn't go unnoticed by the judges, which hailed AXA IM as a long-standing supporter of sustainable finance.