Investment houses, falling margins call for rethinking business models
Efficiency, scalability and the transformation of costs from fixed to variable must be leveraged
Key points
How is the asset management business doing? How are the accounts of asset management companies doing? After a down year, 2025 rekindled spirits, but not at all companies. 2024 had shown sterile results with system-wide profits 20% below the record results of 2021, average EBITDA down three basis points and a forecast of further difficulties (source: McKinsey) for many operators during 2025. , on the other hand,
Budgets under the Lens
In fact, looking at the main balance sheet indicators (from profit to commissions) of some important players in the sector, the result of Eurizon stands out, which posted a profit of 936 million (+62% on 2024). BancoPosta Sgr also did well, closing 2025 with a profit of 49.7 million, up 28%.
Results due in some cases to rising commissions but also to a reduction in operating costs, as in the case of Anima. Budget 2025 with some disappointment, instead, for the Sgr Azimut Capital Management (profit down 14%), Arca (-5%) and Mediolanum (-9%).
In perspective
But what can we expect in 2026? The asset management industry in Italia continues to operate under growing pressures dictated primarily by geopolitical and economic dynamics, "as well as by the trend of market consolidation that accelerates the dynamics of asset polarisation on the largest asset managers," explains Giovanni Andrea Incarnato, Italy wealth & asset management sector leader at EY. The downturn in the first quarter of 2026, however, is part of the positive picture that asset managers have consolidated at the end of 2025, which, compared to the first data from last year's financial statements observed on a sample of players, still sees growth in both commissions and profits at system level".
As Incarnato explains, the asset management industry finds itself operating in an increasingly chaotic and unpredictable environment: "We can define it by the acronym 'Navi' (Nonlinear, Accelerated, Volatile, Interconnected). Non-linear because of increasingly frequent hard-to-identify and high-magnitude inflection points (e.g. sudden conflicts, the launch of ChatGpt). Accelerated because significant events occur more and more frequently and require continuous tactical responses. Volatile because geopolitics and economics are characterised by increasing unpredictability, making the correct allocation of capital difficult. Interconnected with events that, although they may not seem similar (migration, technology), are mutually reinforcing and can create significant impacts on people's lives
