As of 30 June 2020, Austria’s investment fund industry managed assets[1] of € 187.2 billion, an increase by € 12.9 billion or +7.4% compared to the end of the 1st quarter of 2020. The industry was therefore by and large able to recover from the massive fall caused by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic during the 1st quarter (- € 20.7 bn) and therefore stood only 4% or € 7.8 bn below the all-time high of €195 bn as per the end of 2019. At the end of the 2nd quarter, € 104.9 billion of the funds volume was held in alternative investment funds (AIFs) and € 82.3 billion in “undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities” (UCITS). In the long-term the share of volume held in AIFs has increased compared to that of UCITS. These are the findings of the FMA’s Report on Asset Management for Q2 2020, which was published today.
Conservative and sustainable
Broken down by investment strategy as of the reporting date, the net asset value (NAV) was as follows: mixed funds € 82.2 bn (+7.5% or + € 5.7 bn compared with the previous quarter / – € 1.3 bn or – 1.6% during H1 2020), bond funds € 60.5 bn (+6.0% or + € 3.4 bn / – € 1.6 bn or -2.6%), equity funds € 28.2 bn (+15.6% or + € 3.8 bn / – € 4.8 bn or -14.4%), real estate funds € 9.6 bn (+1.5% or + € 144 mn / + € 171 mn or +1.8%), short-term bond funds € 5.8 bn (-2.0% or – € 120 mn / – € 228 mn or – 3.8%), private equity funds € 0.6 bn as well as other funds € 0.4 bn. The recovery of the net asset values in the individual categories in particular is due to increase in prices as well as partially due to net inflows of funds.
Although the number of Austrian sustainability funds in accordance with Ecolabel 49 (UZ49; Umweltzeichen 49) during the past half year remained constant at around +/- 77, they have proven to be particularly strong during the Covid-19 crisis: their net asset value increased from €10.5 bn at year-end 2019 (2018: €5.8 bn) to €10.7 at the end of the 1st quarter of 2020 and to € 12.5 bn at the end of the 2nd quarter, an increase of 18.2% during the first half of 2020 alone. Such funds already make up almost 6.7% of the total net asset value.
The number of foreign funds notified in Austria for marketing has been increasing constantly for years and even the current crisis was unable to arrest this trend: While at year-end 2014 there were 6,382 such funds (6,110 UCITS and 272 AIFs) this figure had risen to 9,135 as of 30 June 2020 (7,567 UCITS, 1,568 AIFs). The number of notified foreign funds rose by 277 during the first half of 2020 alone.
As of 30 June 2020, the Austrian funds were managed by 14 Austrian investment fund management companies (KAGs) and 52 alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs). In total they managed 2,025 funds (2,025 AIFs and 913 1,112), six fewer than at the end of 2019. Broken down by investment strategy there are 1,116 mixed funds, 436 bond funds, 329 equity funds, 54 short-term bond funds, 31 private equity funds, 18 real estate funds as well as 41 other funds.
The full quarterly report can be found (in German only) on the FMA website via this link.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/ (0) 676 / 88 249 516
[1] Measured in terms of Net Asset Value (NAV)