BCR Obligatiuni will absorb BCR Monetar, which is currently the largest mutual fund in Romania with 62,300 investors and assets of RON1.67 billion. BCR Obligatiuni has assets of RON1.5 billion from over 42,000 clients. Both funds invest their clients’ savings in government securities and bank deposits, having made a profit of over 55% since their 2007 launch.
The new BCR Obligatiuni fund will account for almost 40% of the RON7.8-billion assets of overall mutual funds on the local market and will manage the wealth of over 100,000 investors.
“We decided to merge in order to meet the new European regulations on the functioning of money market funds, as well as because the structure, behavior and investment horizon of our clients are similar,” said Dragos Neacsu, president of Erste Asset Management.
This is the first time in over 15 years that the local mutual fund industry gets to have such a large fund – giant for Romania but perfectly normal for the much more developed markets in the region.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)