Austrian asset managers’s investments in equity and sustainable funds increased robustly in the first half of the year. Investments in equity funds rose by 10.5%, or €3.8bn, to a total €40.3bn, according to the latest quarterly report published by the Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Funds for green investments according to Articles 8 and 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) managed assets totalling €89.5bn, up 9.6%, or €7.9bn in H1 of 2023.

Asset managers, instead, pulled money from real estate funds, recording the largest decline in terms of investments (6%) in the first half of the year to €10.6bn. Private equity funds, and other fund vehicles, also lost ground, with investments declining by 8.6%, or €33.8m, year-to-date, the FMA added.

Assets in mixed funds amounted to €95.0bn, up 1.9% or €1.8bn in H1; in bond funds assets also rose by 5.8% or €3bn to €55.7bn year-to-date, the regulator said.

Investments in short-term bond funds declined by 11.5% or €0.6bn in H1 this year to €4.4bn, it added.

In Q2 bond funds saw aggregated net cash inflows of €1bn, equity funds of €1.1bn, while mixed funds recorded net cash outflows of €0.6bn, real estate funds €0.4bn and other funds €21.5m.

Assets under management this year totalled approximately €207.6bn, increasing by 3.7% or €7.4bn. Last year, AUM declined by over €30bn as a result of market volatility and the war in Ukraine, FMA said.

As of June, 14 investment companies (KAG) and 60 alternative investment fund managers (AIFM) were active in Austria.

The number on alternative investments funds (AIFs) increased by six to 1,213 quarter-on-quarter in Q2, including 12 real estate funds, and by one for undertakings for collective investment in securities (UCITS) to 878.

According to investment strategies, Austrian funds are split into 1,139 mixed funds, 428 bond funds, 355 equity funds, 51 short-term bond funds, 41 private equity funds, 19 real estate funds and 58 other funds.

The number of equity funds has increased by eight in H1, of short-term bond funds by three, of bond funds by five, and  of other type of funds by eleven, while the number of mixed funds fell by four, of private equity funds and real estate funds by one so far this year.

The number of Article 8 SFDR funds increased by 45 to total 565 funds, while the number of Article 9 funds fell by four to 10, as of June this year, according to the quarterly report.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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