Assets under management (AUM) for Austrian investment funds peaked to the highest amount on record to €191.9bn in 2020, up by 3.8% year-on-year compared to €184.9bn in 2019, according to the latest figures published by the Vienna-based investment companies association VÖIG.
Investors allocated 46.8% of assets last year to mixed funds (bonds and equities), 35.5% to pure bond funds and 17.6% to equity funds. Dividends totalled €1.7bn and returns amounted to €2.7bn.
Funds saw net inflows totalling €6bn at the end of last year, with institutional investors accounting for €3.1bn in net inflows, while the remainder €2.9bn was deployed in retail funds.
Net inflows saw an uptick after an outflow of €3.2bn in March at the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funds investing in equities in Japan topped the ranking in terms of performance in 2020 with 13.31%, followed by international equities with 9.39% and funds with a focus on equities in the Asia-Pacific region with 7.07%.
VÖIG noted that the investments funds’ performance followed different trajectories based on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic regionally. Funds investing in European equities, for example, performed poorly last year (-6.9%) and equity funds with focus on Central and Eastern Europe even worse (-16.89%), it said.
AUM in real estate funds also reached a record high of €9.6bn in 2020, up by 4.9% compared to €9.1bn in 2019. Assets in Austrian real estate funds saw a steady increase from €1.08bn in 2005.
Net inflow in real estate funds amounted to €340m, dividends to €92m and returns to €200m. Real estate investment funds also showed a positive performance in 2020 (2.28%).
Assets in sustainable investment funds rose by €6.8bn, or 64.6%, to €17.3bn in 2020 from €10.5bn in 2019.
Sustainable equity funds amounted to €4.2bn of total assets at the end of December, with mixed funds at €7.3bn, bonds funds at €5.5bn and real estate sustainable funds at €400m.
At the end of December, 15 Austrian asset management companies managed a total of 1,944 funds, including 679 retail funds and 1,265 institutional funds.
VÖIG calculated that 217 investments funds were liquidated last year, 206 were merged, and 69 new funds were established.
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