Almost €1bn wiped off European SRI funds, green fund sales rebound pre Copenhagen

Retail sales of European SRI funds took a hammering in October as €977m was wiped off the value of the sector in one month, according to the latest available figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FMI, the investment data group. That came after a relatively healthy September when SRI sector sales were up €90.3m, indicating considerable volatility in investor views. SRI funds or ‘RI Screened’ as they are labelled by Lipper FMI, are those that have undergone an ‘extra-financial’ ESG (environment, social and governance) screen in their stock selection process. Conversely, sales of green themed funds (labelled by Lipper FMI as ‘RI Extended’ which includes funds with multiple exclusions, those following a norms-based strategy and themed climate change and microfinance funds) returned to the black during October with net inflows of €512.7m, suggesting greater investor interest as the Copenhagen climate change summit approached. That reversed losses in green themed funds during September when total assets in the sector fell by €90m. October’s biggest selling RI screened fund was Belgian manager Dexia’s Money Market Euro Sustainable fund with net inflows of €115.7m. Second placed was Scottish fund manager, Aberdeen Asset Management’s Global ResponsibleWorld Equity fund, pulling in €67m. In third was Dexia’s Sustainable Euro government bonds fund with sales of €47m. The largest RI Screened fund remains Allianz’s French-domiciled Securicash SRI fund with €2.28bn. Second is Société Générale’s SGAM Invest Monetaire ISR with €1.37bn. Third is French insurer Macif’s short-term cash SRI fund with €1.07bn. The total RI screened fund universe is €48.5bn. In the RI extended, green-themed sector, the biggest fund seller in October was Blackrock’s New Energy Fund with sales of €336.9m. Second was French fund manager Natixis’ Impact Funds – Climate Change fund with net sales of €40.3m. Third was French postal bank La Poste’s fund of funds guaranteed (Responsable Guarantie Novembre 2011) with sales of €29.6m. The largest RI extended fund remains Blackrock’s New Energy Fund with €2.76bn. Second is Pictet’s Water Fund with €2.2bn. Third is French fund manager Ofivalmo’s Tresor ISR fund, European money market fund, with €963.3m. The total RI extended universe is €19.9bn. October saw total mainstream equity fund sales of €13.8bn on total a universe of €1.5 trillion.
Download Lipper FMI stats as PDF here.