French SRI assets grow by 35% in 2010

SRI assets in France grew by 35% during 2010 to reach €68.3bn, albeit with the growth driven largely by the SRI conversion of two major funds, Natixis Aset Management’s Fonsicav (money-market fund) and asset manager, Edmond de Rothschild’s Tricolore Rendement equity fund. The figures were revealed in the latest annual market survey by Novethic, the French sustainable investment research group. Novethic said that asset flows into pooled funds, which became dominant in 2009, had continued to outweigh segregated management with relative market share up from 57% to 59% of the market against 41% for separate accounts.The latter segment remains limited to two investors and thus witnessed a smaller growth in the absence of new players. Novethic said investment into SRI denominated employee savings schemes had been particularly dynamic in 2010, rising by 47%. However, financial performance only had a marginal effect on the rise in SRI assets last year, with the average performance of SRI funds coming in at around 5% for the year, way below their 2009 gains, when they returned an average of +27%. During the same time period the Eurostoxx50 index returned 21% and -6% respectively.
Link to Novethic report