The statistical data includes both the assets of mutual (open-ended) funds, worth EUR1.9 billion, as well as those of the closed-end funds and individual accounts in the portfolios of the local managers.
Three years ago, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the onset of the financial crisis, the assets of the local investment funds stood at about EUR300 million.
The surge in the mutual fund market came as a result of the more aggressive promotion of such products by BCR (owned by Erste) and Raiffeisen, two of the largest banks on the market, which over three years got to manage over EUR630 million in assets each. Both Erste Asset Management and Raiffeisen Asset Management have promoted mainly low risk funds (money-market and bond funds), which have therefore become the largest funds on the market by far. Raiffeisen also launched a number of euro- and dollar-denominated funds, which raised tens of millions of euros from Romanians willing to invest in foreign currency.
The Romanian Association of Asset Managers also included in its statistics the funds distributed on the local market but registered abroad. The most important such products are managed by ING, which came in third among local asset managers, with almost EUR260 million in assets.
The two funds managed by ING, one of which invests in bonds and the other in shares, were launched in February 2008, with a significant part of the assets contributed by the participants to ING’s insurance schemes. The funds are registered in Luxembourg but are managed by the local team of ING Investment Management. ING Romanian Equity became the largest equity fund on the local market, with EUR69 million in assets at the end of August, yet about 40% of its assets are invested on other bourses in the region.
Local funds’ asset growth slowed down quite severely in August, as a result of stock markets plummeting, which offset part of the new capital inflows. Net subscriptions registered last month stood at about 86 million lei (EUR20 million).
(EUR1=RON4.2657)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu; Editing by Radu Bostan)