CySEC: AUM of Collective Investments for the 4th quarter of 2022 reached €9.5bn

During the 4th quarter of 2022, the number of Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs) remained stable, with the assets under management reaching €9.5bn, a recent announcement by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has revealed.

Based on the quarterly statistics bulletin for the 4th quarter of 2022 issued by CySEC, which presents the most important data for the Collective Investments sector in Cyprus, CySEC continued to supervise of 333 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs). From these, 243 have operations.

The total number of companies includes 219 Externally Managed UCIs, 40 Internally Managed UCIs and 74 External Fund Managers. The total number of Management Companies includes 45 AIFMs, 59 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 4 UCITS Management Companies and 6 dual license entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies).

Based on the data for the 4th quarter of 2022, the Total Assets Under Management (AUM) reached €9.5 billion, recording a 3.7% decrease since the 3rd quarter of 2022, whereas comparing with the same period in 2021, the decrease amounts to 17,7%. The decrease in the value of investments is mainly due to devaluation of assets, redemptions of investment shares and asset disposals. Given the undesirable events and unforeseen circumstances of the last couple of years, the Undertakings of Collective Investments Sector could not stay unaffected.

The UCIs, managed by the Management Companies, had a Net Asset Value (NAV) of €8.9billion. Approximately, 64% of the AUM relate to Assets managed by the AIFMs, 10% by the Sub-threshold AIFMs, 16% by the AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies, 9% by the UCITS Management Companies and only 1% by the Regulated UCIs that are managed by Foreign Fund Managers.

Approximately 84.6% of UCITS Assets under Management were invested in Transferable Securities and 8.7% in bank deposits, while 5.5% were invested in UCITSs and UCIs. Regarding AIFs, AIFLNPs and RAIFs 44.3% of the Assets Under Management related to investments in Private Equity, followed by the investments in Funds of Funds (10.4%) and Real Estate investments (10.1%), while the investment in Hedge Funds represents the 9.8% of the AUM.

There is a total of 207 UCIs with operations. Comprising 80% of the total AUM are 186 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus (13 UCITS, 56 AIF, 52 AIFLNP and 65 RAIF). From the total 207 UCIs, 163 invest in Cyprus partially or entirely and these investments amount to €2.2 billion or 23.4% of the total Assets Under Management. The 69.5% of the investments in Cyprus are in Private Equity, while the 13.1% are in Real Estate.

When it comes to categorising unitholders, the vast majority of UCITs are retail investor (98.9%), while for AIF, AIFNLP and RAIF, 21.1% of them are professional investors, 65.7% well-informed investors and only 13.2% retail investors.

Regarding the specific sectors that UCIs invested in, during the 4th quarter of 2022, AUM in the Energy sector amounted to €259.6m (2.729% of total AUM), while €60.1m was invested in Fintech (0.632% of total AUM), €116.7m in Shipping (1.227% of total AUM), and €64.4m in Sustainable Investments (0.677% of total AUM).