CySEC: 335 UCIs currently under supervision

The number of Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs) has increased to 335, with the assets under management reaching €10.7b in the first quarter of 2023, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) said.

Based on its quarterly statistics bulletin for Q1 of 2023, which presents the most important data for the Collective Investments sector in Cyprus, CySEC supervises 335 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), as opposed to 333 during the fourth quarter of 2022 and 322 during the same period of the previous year, recording an increase of 0.60% and 4.03% respectively. From these, 252 have operations.

The total number of 335 entities includes 223 Externally Managed UCIs, 39 Internally Managed UCIs and 73 External Fund Managers. The total number of Management Companies includes 46 AIFMs, 57 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 3 UCITS Management Companies and 6 dual license entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies).

Based on the data for the 1st quarter of 2023, the Total Assets Under Management (AUM) reached €10.7 billion, recording a 12.44% increase since the 4th quarter of 2022, whereas comparing with the same period in 2022, the decrease amounts to 3.7%.

The UCIs, managed by the Management Companies, had a Net Asset Value (NAV) of €9.7 billion. Approximately, 67% of the AUM relate to Assets managed by the AIFMs, 14% by the AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies, 10% by the Sub-threshold AIFMs, 8% by the UCITS Management Companies and only 1% by the Regulated UCIs that are managed by Foreign Fund Managers.

Approximately 89.4% of UCITS Assets under Management were invested in Transferable Securities and 5.3% were invested in UCITSs and UCIs while 4.2% in bank deposits. Regarding AIFs, AIFLNPs and RAIFs 45.7% of the Assets Under Management related to investments in Private Equity, while the investment in Hedge Funds represents the 11.5% of the AUM. Investments in Funds of Funds represent the 9.5%, while investments in Real Estate represent the 9.2% of the AUM.

There is a total of 219 UCIs with operations. The 77% of the total AUM is held by 195 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus (13 UCITS, 56 AIFs, 52 AIFLNPs and 74 RAIFs). From the total 219 UCIs, 170 invest in Cyprus partially or entirely and these investments amount to €2.5 billion or 23.6% of the total Assets Under Management. The 74.8% of the investments in Cyprus are in Private Equity, while the 11.7% are in Real Estate.

When it comes to categorising unitholders, the vast majority of UCITS are retail investors (98.9%), while for AIFs, AIFNLPs and RAIFs, 66% are well-informed investors, 20.9% of them are professional investors, and only 13.1% are retail investors.

Regarding the specific sectors that UCIs invested in, during the 1st quarter of 2023, AUM in the Energy sector amounted to €365.2m (3.414% of total AUM), while €61.6 m was invested in Fintech (0.576% of total AUM), €576.6m in Shipping (5.391% of total AUM) and €70.9m in Sustainable Investments (0.663% of total AUM).