Net sales of UCITS and alternative investment funds (AIFs) reached €222 billion, compared to €189 billion in Q4 2017, according to The European Fund and Asset Management Association’s (EFAMA) Quarterly Statistical Release.
The results showed trends in the European investment fund industry in the first quarter of 2018 with key data and indicators for each EFAMA member country.
EFAMA found UCITS registered net sales of €171 billion, compared to €170 billion in Q4 2017.
Long-term UCITS recorded the same amount of net sales as in Q4 2017 (€173 billion).
Equity funds experienced the highest level of net sales €85 billion, followed by multi-asset funds (€58 billion) and bond funds (€27 billion).
Net sales of UCITS money market funds recorded net outflows of €2 billion, compared to net outflows of €3 billion in Q4 2017.
Net sales of equity and multi-asset funds continued to increase during the first quarter, whereas net sales of bond funds fell sharply.
AIFs net sales amounted to €51 billion, up from €19 billion in Q4 2017.
Net sales of equity funds turned negative (€2 billion), whereas bond funds continued to record net outflows, albeit lower than during the last quarter of 2017 (€4 billion, compared to €37 billion).
Total European investment fund net assets decreased by 0.5 percent to €15 trillion at the end March 2018.
Net assets of UCITS dropped by 0.6 percent to €9 trillion.
Bernard Delbecque, senior director for economics and research, said: “Net sales of UCITS remained strong in Q1 2018 thanks to a sales record in January and continuing net sales in the following two months, despite the turmoil in the markets.”
