Asociácia správcovských spoločností je pozorovateľom v celoeurópskej asociácii investičných spoločností a fondov FEFSI. Pravidelné reporty z produkcie FEFSI, mapujúce vývoj v odvetví investičných fondov v Európe, sú pre všetkých profesionálov jedinečným a vyhľadávaným informačným zdrojom. Všetkým záujemcom o takýto druh informácii chce ASS vyjsť v ústrety a preto bude na svojich stránkach pravidelne uverejňovať stručný výťah zo štatistického materiálu FEFSI a to v pôvodnej anglickej jazykovej úprave. Keďže angličtina je esperantom finančníctva, veríme, že jazyková odlišnosť nebude prekážkou. V prípade záujmu o podrobné a kompletné informácie aj s príslušnými tabuľkami a grafmi vám úplné znenie na požiadanie (cez sekciu “Napíšte nám”) radi zašleme v elektronickej podobe.

Trends in the European Investment Fund Industry in the Second Quarter of 2002

The combined assets of the investment fund market in Europe, i.e. the market for UCITS and other nationally regulated types of investment funds, fell by 6.7% during the second quarter of 2002 and by 2.9% during the first half of this year (Table 1). Even if this decline – as well as the persistent stock market volatility over the summer – will impact on the industry results for 2002 as a whole, total assets under management in the European investment fund industry at end-June 2002 remained EUR 220 billion higher than at end-September 2001 following the terrorist attacks in the US.

Three countries (France, Luxembourg and Germany) continue to dominate the industry with a global market share of almost 60%. The United Kingdom and Italy follow in this ranking.

With EUR 3,471 billion invested in UCITS, this segment of the business accounted for 78.2% of the fund market at end-June 2002.

Trends in the UCITS industry

Total assets in the UCITS market dropped by 6.6% during the second quarter and by 3.2% during the first six months of 2002 (Table 2). This evolution mainly reflected new sharp falls in stock markets, which suffered from corporate and accounting scandals in the US and uncertain global economic prospects. Even if falling share prices slowed down investors’ buying activity, flows into equity funds remained positive in most countries (Chart 1). This positive development helped to limit the drop in equity fund assets to 11.9% between January and June. By way of comparison, the Dow Jones Broad Europe STOXX index fell by 15% over the same period.

Inflows into bond and money market funds continued during the second quarter, albeit at a smaller pace than in previous quarters, especially in Germany. It is also worth noting that investors in Italy continued to reshuffle their fund portfolio towards money market funds. Overall, net sales of UCITS in the group of countries reported in Table 3 (which controlled 68% of total UCITS assets in Europe at end 2001) amounted to EUR 60 billion in the first half of 2002.

The following comments may be made:

Developments in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Germany in the second quarter were strongly influenced by the relatively high proportion of equity fund assets that characterizes the fund market in those countries. The fall was smaller in Belgium than in other countries heavily exposed to equity funds because of the importance of guaranteed funds (EUR 23.3 billion at the end of June 2002) which helped to cushion the fall in global equity markets.

The relatively good performance of Finland and Switzerland can be attributed to the strong rise in bond fund assets during the second quarter (+18% and +29%, respectively). On the other hand, the low equity exposure in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain helped to limit the decline in UCITS assets in those countries.

Among the fund industry’s leading countries, Luxembourg suffered not only from the general drop in financial markets but also from a 5% decline in money market fund assets – a development that contrasted with the trends observed in money market fund assets elsewhere in Europe.

Trends in the non-UCITS industry

The non-UCITS market is dominated by four types of products: the German special funds reserved for institutional investors, the British closed-ended investment trusts, the real estate funds and the French open-ended employees saving funds.

The stock market uncertainty continued to generate positive inflows into real estate funds. The 11.8% increase in real-estate assets since end-December 2001 highlights how attractive this type of fund has become as investment vehicle for risk-averse investors (Table 5).

Finally, it should be noted that the flows of funds into “Spezialfonds” grew from EUR 4.3 billion in the first quarter of 2002 to EUR 10.7 billion in the second quarter. This positive development contributed to limit somewhat the fall of assets in this category of funds in Germany.