The first half of the year saw investment funds in Germany recording inflows of new money to the tune of €50.7bn net. These inflows were for the most part generated by open-ended Spezialfonds, with €39.4bn. Open-ended retail funds brought in €10.5bn. Closed-ended funds collected €0.8bn net. Institutional investors withdrew €10.8bn from discretionary mandates. As at the end of June 2018, the German fund industry managed assets in excess of €3trn.
As in the previous two years, retirement benefit schemes, such as pension funds and pension schemes, topped the sales chart for open-ended Spezialfonds, entrusting Spezialfonds with new money amounting to €12.1bn net during the period from the beginning of January to the end of June 2018. This equates to roughly a third of Spezialfonds’ new business. Based on the total assets managed by Spezialfonds in the amount of €1.6trn, the share of retirement benefit schemes grew from 22% at the end of 2016 to 28 per cent. Insurance companies remain the largest investor group in terms of volume, investing assets worth €556bn. Since the end of 2016, their share has declined from 37% to 34%.
Balanced funds are topping the open-ended retail funds sales chart for the sixth consecutive year, raising €12.2bn net during the first half of 2018. As in the previous year, the focus was on products that invest equally in equities and bonds, accounting for €8.8bn.
Property funds recorded inflows in the amount of €2.7bn. Equity funds brought in €1.2bn. On balance, investors withdrew €2.9bn from bond funds. In particular funds investing in corporate bonds registered outflows (€1.9bn). Funds focusing on long term in euro-denominated bonds recorded inflows (€1.6bn).
Since the beginning of the year, net assets managed by closed-ended funds grew from €6bn to €7bn, of which €5bn is managed by closed-ended Spezialfonds and €2bn by closed-ended retail funds. At €0.7bn, Spezialfonds dominated new business during the first half of the year. By comparison, closed ended funds collected €2.9bn during the entire calendar year 2017, with Spezialfonds contributing €2.6bn. The statistics, which may also include companies that are not BVI members, take into consideration closed-ended funds incepted in accordance with the provisions of the German Capital Investment Code (KAGB) as well as comparable funds incepted abroad.
