At the end of the 3rd Quarter of 2022, Austrian funds had a net asset value[1] of € 198.6 billion, a decrease of 2.2% or – € 4.4 billion compared to the previous quarter. In comparison with the historical record level at the start of the year of € 230.7 billion, this means a fall by € 32.1 billion or -13.9%. The majority of this decrease was attributable to falls in share prices as a result of the massive economic turbulence as a fallout of the war being waged by Russia against its neighbouring country, Ukraine; Only a loss of € 122 million was attributable to net outflows of funds. As of the reporting date, the 14 investment fund management companies[2] (KAGs) and 59 alternative investment fund managers[3] (AIFMs) authorised in Austria, offered a total of 881 undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS), as investment funds are called under European law, as well as 1,198 alternative investment funds (AIFs); this was an increase of four AIFMs over the preceding quarter, 11 UCITS fewer and 47 more AIFs. These findings emerged from the “Q3 2021 Quarterly Report for Asset Management” that was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
Only a few categories of funds
Generally practically all fund categories posted significant decreases in terms of assets under management, with only real estate funds showing a marginal increase: the most important fund category remains that of mixed funds with total assets invested of € 92.8 billion (- € 1.6 billion or – 1.7% compared to the previous quarter, – € 13.0 billion or – 12.3% since the start of the year); followed by bond funds with € 52.5 billion (- € 1.7 billion or -3.1% / – € 9.9 billion or – 15.9%), equity funds with € 35.1 billion (- € 1.1 billion or -3.0% / – € 8.9 billion or – 20.3%), real estate funds with € 11.4 billion (+ € 16.8 million or + 0.1% / + € 0.4 billion or + 3.5%), short-term bond funds with € 5.5 billion (- 1.0% / – 8.7%), Private Equity Funds with € 0.8 billion as well as other funds with € 0.4 billion. It is noteworthy that sustainability funds have increased strongly in spite of the most recent capital market turbulence: funds in accordance with Article 8 and Article 9 SFDR[4] managed funds of € 78.2 billion at the end of the 3rd Quartal 2022, an increase of €7.6 billion or + 10.8% compared with the preceding quarter. Of these “light green funds” (Article 8) make up managed funds of € 73.3 billion (+ € 7.5 billion or +11.5%), while “dark green funds” (Article 9) make up € 4.9 billion (€ + 0.1 billion or + 1.3%).
The number of foreign funds that are offered in Austria has been increased continually for the last five years. At the end of the 3rd Quarter of 2022, there were 10,550 in total, comprising of 2,535 AIFs and 8,015 UCITS. At year-end 2021 there were only 9,744 (2,030 AIFs and 7,714 UCITS), with the majority of the providers coming from Luxembourg and Ireland, followed by Germany and France to a substantially lesser extent.
The full quarterly report can be found (in German only) at https://www.fma.gv.at/investmentfonds-und-verwaltungsgesellschaften/quartalsberichte/.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson):
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/(0)676 88 249 516
[1] Measured in terms of Net Asset Value (NAV)
[2] under the Investment Funds Act 2011 (InvFG 2011; Investmentfondsgesetz 2011)
[3] under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Act (AIFMG)
[4] Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR): Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector.