5 million only a few were in a delicate situation

The shadow of the great beasts, "networks", "gazelles" to the management, the shops have flourished as now to part of the landscape of the French management. Their influence goes far beyond their weight, which remains modest (read below). The success of their mode of development based on many large companies management, which strive to adapt and are often hastily renamed "multispécialistes". "It is not necessarily harder to launch today the Corporation as in the past, it's different, insists Alain Wicker, President of the French investment." If the French market is a little less closed now with the development of open architecture, it is also more competitive. Start from scratch seems very difficult institutional investors rarely placing their money in a fund if the latter does not have at least three years of "track" record (Editor's Note: past Manager performance).

However, the performance obtained by a Manager in his former environment is not transposable in his new company, where he will not benefit from the same environment, in terms of research and services, and where it will be captured by other tasks management. Yet this is what implication do most managers who take their "track record" with them and are able to do as well, if it is better for their own account because they are freed from the burdens of their former "House." Often, the contractors left of great managers of assets (see below) which they have measured the limits in terms of freedom of management.

The caution of the MFA

The authority of des marchés financiers (AMF) has long feared that "small" are the weak link of a French collective well held and well lined. Hence its extreme vigilance. Those fears somewhat eased as the dialogue resumed with the contractors on the initiative of the French Association of financial management (AFG). What are "small" which remain the most punished by the AMF, generally more for defects or deficiencies in their organization to serious wrongdoing, which remain very rare. "The leader of a business management company is in the front line, said Jean de Demandolx Dedons, President and CEO of j. de Demandolx management." He puts his reputation and his money at stake and it will be the first to be held responsible in the case of underperformance or problem.

Regulation, which is a fixed cost to their eyes, is not as a barrier to entry in the light of the ever-submitted creations of small shops: 60 since 2003. Last year, two new management in three companies were small structures and three years, about half of the creations were at the initiative of entrepreneurs, including a large part in multi-management, alternative management and venture capital.

End of 2005, the AFG identified 60 "Gazelles" of companies whose stocks grow very quickly on approximately 250 "entrepreneurial".

The AFG holds as a criterion for eligibility the fact that the capital be detained more than 50 by physical persons, which includes actors such as Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch or Rothschild & Cie management. "Some specialised subsidiaries of major French asset managers have similar to those adopted by entrepreneurial management societies development models and organization", noted Carlos Pardo, Director of economic studies of the AFG.

This evolution of the "business models" part of the population of management companies may be to predict term the emergence of a large number of "shops" of average size on the French market. With 113.1 billion in stock, nearly 80 in funds, entrepreneurs had accounted for only 5 of the total assets of all management companies. 34 Large entrepreneurial companies accounted for 84 of the assets of this population and 80 of their turnover.

Exceed historical customer

For the most important of them, a challenge now is to remain as efficient with more money to manage. Indeed, on the actions of the small and medium-sized French companies, one of the specialities of the shops, there is usually an inverse relationship between the size of a Fund and its performance. Growth through emancipation beyond historical private clients to tackle the institutional world. And the success is sometimes meet. Assets managed on behalf of the institutional French thus grew by 45 for Comgest and Oddo AM between June 2006 and June 2005, according to Bfinance.

Magnify allows also to attract institutional investors, who are reluctant to invest in companies too small or too young. The emancipation beyond French borders is within reach companies who already have a certain Foundation, "historical" as the financial to the Exchequer or Carmignac. To help them in their development, small can seek support from a sponsor as the French investments. "The affiliation with a recognized brand has allowed us to win at least three years on the activity of our business model forecasts", welcomes Jean-Luc Buchalet, President of Pythagoras investment BP, which stock should reach the 300 million euros this year.

Today, the French investment is highly selective in its role as incubator of talent. "We do not have a vocation to take control of entrepreneurial management companies in which we have invested," says Alain Wicker. These minority holdings in companies whose products must not be in competition with ours are ad hoc partnerships whose duration depends mostly on the wish of the founders. "Another model, the Bank Martin Maurel, which unites around her small portfolio management companies. It provides for various functions, such as custodian. A good way to control what happens there.

Contribution to employment

Entrepreneurial management companies collect on average twice that other funds open to the public, is EUR 12 billion in 2005. And they see their stocks advance two or three times faster ( 37 between 2004 and 2005). Report: last year, they have reconnected with their level of profitability before the burst of the dot-com bubble (see illustration). Then only one-third of entrepreneurial companies were in the red in 2002, they were more than 10 to remain last year.

On the twenty players who were a total loss of the order of 10.5 million, only a few were in a delicate situation. "Unimportance of the few cases of these companies into the red, said Thomas Valli, the AFG Economist." In the majority of cases, the losses are minimal and well often due to the fact that these companies are of recent creation. In a number limited case, they also reflect a smoothing operation accounts strategy and results including the main variable of adjustment are wage costs.

In this regard, the contribution of the shops employed is not negligible with more than 2,300 positions about 18 of the total of the companies of management and dynamic recruitment, an increase of 30 since 2003. Tailor-made requires labour, as these small structures are the antithesis of large plants in industrialized management.