In March the market of mutual funds exceeded all expectations, managing to draw net inflows of RON361 million (EUR82 million) from investors. This amount adds to the RON450 million (EUR102 million) attracted in January and February, so total net inflows climbed to a record RON811 million (EUR184 million) in the first quarter. At the end of March total assets of the over 60 mutual funds reached RON9.745 billion (EUR2.214 billion), 10% more than at the beginning of the year.
The bulk of the money attracted in March went into the BRD Euro fund, which reported net inflows of RON135 million. BRD Euro, which has a conservative risk profile and is denominated in euros, became the best-selling fund in March, after BCR Obligatiuni had attracted the largest amounts from investors in January and February.
BRD Euro is managed by BRD Asset Management, part of banking group BRD, and had a yield of 4.37% in euros in the last 12 months, by investing in bank deposits, bonds and government securities denominated in euros.
“Since its launch in 2010, the fund has recorded a 16% yield in euros, and this has been one of the factors behind the record net inflows in March. Another factor is investors’ preference for low-risk, high-liquidity funds,” said Dan Nicu, president of BRD Asset Management.
Next in the ranking of the largest net inflows in March are BCR Obligatiuni, with RON120.4 million, Raiffeisen Ron Plus, with RON56 million and Raiffeisen Ron Flexi, with RON32.3 million. All three funds are low-risk investments, with yields of around 6.5% in the last 12 months.
At the opposite end are equity funds, which had a good start of the year, with yields of up to 10% in the first three months, but investors withdrew money. BCR Dinamic saw outflows of RON3.3 million in net amount in March and Carpatica Global saw outflows of RON1.9 million.
Investors’ preference for low-risk funds, which is reflected in the large amounts attracted by this type of funds in the last few years, has led to around 82% of the industry’s RON9.7 billion assets being placed in conservative investments. Only 8% of the assets are invested in funds with equity in their portfolio, which entail a high risk for investors. On mature markets in Europe there is a balance between assets placed in risky funds and in conservative funds.
Closed-end investment fund Raiffeisen Dolar Plus doubled its assets in the last year thanks to new money attracted from investors. The fund’s assets currently amount to $62 million and in the last 12 months the fund has recorded a yield of 3.37%.
“The high appetite for the Raiffeisen Dolar Plus fund is justified by the yield obtained and by the high liquidity, given the quite low investments in dollars,” says Mihail Ion, president of Raiffeisen Asset Management.
The best performer also comes from among funds denominated in foreign currency: the Audas Piscator fund had an around 25% yield between March 2012 and March 2013. The fund has assets of RON2.3 million, which it invests in equity and bank deposits. Audas Piscator is managed by Atlas Asset Management. The second-best yielding fund among foreign currency denominated funds is BT Index ATX, with a yield of 8.33% in euros in the last 12 months.
In the category of funds managed by foreign companies and distributed on the Romanian market, the performers are equity fund Pioneer European Potential, with an 18.34% yield in dollars, Pioneer Euroland Equity, with a 16.67% yield in dollars and Pioneer North American Basic Value, with a yield of 16.54% in dollars. The three funds are managed by the Luxembourg division of US group Pioneer and distributed through the banking network of UniCredit Tiriac.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)