Everybody knows bond funds are popular. Now a report from mutual fund analysts Fitzrovia International shows that the bond fund assets of the largest 30 companies offering funds domiciled in Luxembourg and Dublin – the two main cross-border fund administration centres in Europes – increased by 8.1% (US$ 17.2 billion) over one month and by 33.4% (US$ 57.2 billion) over the six months to the end of May this year.
These increases outpaced the overall increase of 15.6% over six months in total net assets to US$ 859.6 billion, which included a 6.0% increase in the month of May, says Fitzrovia.
Actively managed equity funds increased as a proportion of the total (from 21.5% to 21.9% in the month of May), while cash funds decreased slightly (from 30.7% to 29.9%), although the net assets of both asset classes increased over one month (see statistics on page 2).
While only making up 0.9% of the total, assets in alternative investment funds have continued to increase, by 13.0% over one month and by 43.0% over 6 months, with total net assets reaching US$ 7.7 billion in the month of May.
Funds of funds, while increasing total net assets to US$ 47.0 billion in the month of May, have not increased as a proportion of the total, remaining at 5.5%, and this proportion has actually decreased slightly over the past 6 months.
At fund level, the largest monthly growth is seen in Fidelity’s European Growth fund, with an increase of US$ 1.1 billion in the month of May.
At company level, the highest increase over one month was recorded by DGZ-Dekabank, with 10.2% (up by US$ 4.2 billion in the month of May). Separately, the report highlights UBS’ continued dominance overall, with fund assets reaching US$ 101.3 billion in the month of May (a proportion of 11.8% of the total).