A tentative market thaw, with stock markets rallying earlier this year, has kick-started a pipeline of mergers and acquisitions across the asset management industry as banks attempt to shed non-core businesses and investment managers position themselves for growth.

Investment banking firm Sandler O'Neill & Partners estimates that globally $671bn of assets under management "changed hands" during the first quarter of 2013 compared with $327bn in assets the previous quarter. Dealogic data shows an increase in completed European asset management acquisitions so far this year, compared with the whole of 2012. And the global pipeline of deals involving asset managers in Emea also looks healthy, with $22.6bn-worth of M&A deals announced by the second week of May.