GERMANY - The German investment fund industry association says said the volume of funds reserved to institutional investors, Spezialfonds, has grown about five percent since last year, boosted by positive markets.

The BVI, Bundesverband Investment und Asset Management, said that at the end of June 2004 the volume of Spezialfonds was 529.8 billion, up 25.4 billion euros on last year’s 504.4 billion euros.

The BVI attributed the growth to inflows of 16.5 billion euros and “positive market development”.

The BVI added that its members have a total of 635.7 billion euros under management - including special funds and segregated assets.

With retail funds at 451.1 billion euros, the total assets under management is just over a trillion euros.

At the end of June, the three biggest players in the special and segregated funds market were: Dresdner Bank’s dbi (11.3%), AMB Generali (9%) and Deka (7.2%).

Among real estate funds Oppenheim Immobilien-Kapitalanlagegesellschaft is the dominant player with a 39.7% slice of the market.

The number of special funds fell in the first half to 5,050 from 5,165. It said the fall was partly due to investors with several special funds choosing Master-KAG investment funds and in the change of regulations for insurance business.