Half-year figures for Germany: Investment funds raise €51 billion by August

The German Investment Fund Association BVI issued its half-year figures report on 9 August 2018. The first half of 2018 saw investment funds in Germany record net inflows of €50.7 billion. These inflows were for the most part generated by open-ended special funds, with €39.4 billion. Open-ended retail funds brought in €10.5 billion. Closed-ended funds collected €0.8 billion net. Institutional investors withdrew €10.8 billion from discretionary mandates. As at the end of June 2018, the German fund Industry managed assets In excess of €3 billion.

Balanced funds are topping the open-ended retail funds sales chart for the sixth consecutive year, raising €12.2 billion net during the first half of 2018. As in the previous year, the focus was on products that invest equally in equities and bonds, accounting for €8.8 billion.

Since the beginning of the year, net assets managed by closed-ended funds grew from €6 billion to €7 billion, of which €5 billion is managed by closed-ended special funds and €2 billion by closed-ended retail funds. At €0.7 billion, special funds dominated new business during the first half of the year. By comparison, closed-ended funds collected €2.9 billion during the entire calendar year 2017, with special funds contributing €2.6 billion. The statistics take into consideration closed-ended funds incepted in accordance with the provisions of the German Capital Investment Code ("KAGB") as well as comparable funds incepted abroad.

Read: The statistics

One third of special fund inflows from pension funds

According to the German Investment Fund Association (BVI), in the first half of 2018 pension organizations entrusted to open special funds €12.1 billion. This is almost one third of the total special fund turnover of €39.4 billion. Insurance companies invested €7.9 billion in special funds. Banks contributed €7.0 billion. The largest investor group of special funds is insurance companies, which have invested €556 billion in special funds. Based on the total special fund assets of €1,617 billion, this corresponds to a market share of 34%. Pension funds account for 28% of the total, followed by banks and industrial and service companies with 11% each.

Investment limited partnership ("Investment KG") is the most common form of organization of German closed-end funds

The German Investment Fund Association (BVI) states in its statistical summary of August 2018 that 138 out of 238 of the closed-end mutual and special funds that can be individually recorded via the BVI or BaFin database are organized in the form of a closed investment limited partnership. This corresponds to a share of 60%. It rises to 90% if only funds launched after the entry into force of the German Capital Investment Code ("KAGB") is taken into account. The remaining 10% are mainly attributable to the categories stock corporation ("AG"), limited company ("GmbH"), limited partnership whose general partner must be a limited liability company ("GmbH & Co. KG”) and investment stock corporation (”Investment-AG”).