Funds see positive balance of €209M in Q1

Assets under the management of investment funds in Portugal grew in the first quarter of the year, a period in which subscriptions exceeded redemptions by €209.4 million.

The value of assets under management rose 1.8% to €17.8Bn in March compared to February. In the quarter, growth was 3.9% according to the monthly bulletin from the Portuguese Association of Investment Funds, Pensions and Patrimony (APFIPP).
However, the increase translated into losses of 4.8% if the period were to include the past 12 months.
The best performer for March 2023 were sovereign bonds. “The end of a policy of negative interest rates witnessed the biggest and fastest increase in interest rates in the Eurozone ever, providing interesting returns with low risk for investors for the first time in more than 12 years”, the CEO and board president of Optimize Investment Partners, Pedro Lino told Negócios.
The Euro bonds fund category saw the greatest increase of assets under management in March, with an increase of 13.1% (or €194.3 million) to a total of €1.7Bn. Leading the gains was the fund Caixa Disponível from Caixa Gestão de Ativos whose portfolio was the most valuable by the end of March with €279 million.
“The fund management houses are taking advantage (of the higher interest rates) to guarantee medium and long-term returns, buying Government and corporate bonds which in some cases are offering returns of 7%”, adds Pedro Lino.
International and European share funds enjoyed the most growth in March after bonds: 3.8% and 3.7% respectively. Since the beginning of the year, flexible alternative investment funds saw the largest percentage gain at 17.2%.
Boosted by the bond and share markets, investors have shown a greater appetite for Portuguese investment funds, with the balance between redemptions and subscriptions in positive territory by the end of March, which means there were more people investing money than taking it out.
“In March subscriptions stood at €437 million, while the redemptions were €136.1 million. Since the start of the year, the accumulated balance of subscriptions minus redemptions was also positive, totalling €209.4 million”, according to the APFIPP in its bulletin.
In turn, Caixa Gestão de Ativos was the assets management company that held the highest number of subscriptions to redemptions in March with a positive balance of €60.3 million, but was not sufficient to compensate for the poor results in January and February. Since the start of the year it has lost €118 million.

Other Portuguese asset management companies that contributed towards the positive result for March were:

BPI Asset Management (€34.9 million)
Santander Asset Management (€33.4 million)
IM Asset Management (Registered the largest volume of positive net subscriptions – €163.5 million)

IMGA Iberia Equities ESG (IM Asset Management) – Was the most profitable national investment fund (12.4% at 12 months ending March).
Invest Iberia and BP Iberia (Annual returns of 12.2%)