Assets under management (AUM) for Austrian sustainability-driven investment funds rose by 29% to €22.4bn in the first half of this year, up from €17.3bn in 2020, according to figures published last week by the Vienna-based investment companies association VÖIG.
The number of sustainable funds on the market grew from 96 in 2020 to 106 in the first half of this year, figures show.
Last year the Fachverband der Pensionskassen, Austria’s occupational pension fund association, floated the idea of a “green supplementary pension” to push pension funds towards sustainable investments.
The largest share of assets is allocated to sustainable funds with a mix of bond and equity investments at €9.3bn, bonds-only funds follow with €6.5bn. Investments in sustainable funds with a focus on equities stood at €5.9bn and in sustainable real estate funds at €609m.
Open-ended real estate investment funds reached a record high in AUM in the first half of this year with €10.1bn, up from €9.6bn in 2020 and €9.1bn in 2019. Net inflows in real estate funds in the first half of the year amounted to €444m, dividends to around €9.5m and profits to around €116m.
Overall, AUM for Austrian investment funds topped €208.2bn in the first six months of 2021, an increase from €191.9bn in 2020 and €184.9 in 2019.
Net inflows at the end of the second quarter of this year amounted to €8.3bn, with institutional investors accounting for €3.9bn of the total of net inflows.
Allocations in mixed equity and bond funds, representing the biggest chunk of invested assets, continued to increase in H1 this year to 47.5% from 46.8% in 2020.
Investments in bonds-only funds fell from 35.5% of total invested assets last year to 32.7% in the first half of 2021, while allocations to equity saw an uptick from 17.6% of the total assets in 2020 to 19.6% in the first six months of this year. The remaining is invested in hedge funds, derivative funds and money market funds.
Last year the Fachverband der Pensionskassen, Austria’s occupational pension fund association, floated the idea of a “green supplementary pension” to push pension funds torwards sustainable investments.
Equity funds top performance
Funds investing in Austrian equity ranked first place in terms of performance with 53.28% in the first half of this year, ahead of funds investing in European equities excluding the UK with 48.34%, and funds investing in EU equities with 35.28%.
Over the past five years, investments in North American equities topped VÖIG’s performance charts with 13.20%, followed by funds investing in Austrian equities with 10.50% and those investing in equities in Europe excluding the UK with 9.57%. North American equities also topped the 10-year performance charts with 13.40%.
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