European green funds beat mainstream fund sales, SRI tracks down

European retail green fund sales in August were up by €744.1m, beating mainstream equity funds thanks to the rise of ESG labelled Scandinavian funds, according to the latest available figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FMI, the investment data group.
The sales of green themed and norms-based European RI retail fund sales – labelled ‘RI Extended’ by Lipper FMI – were dominated by sales in the Nordic region and especially by funds group Nordea. All of the top ten selling funds came from Scandinavian funds houses, with nine of them sold by Nordea. By contrast, sales of mainstream equity funds were in the red for August, down by €5.6bn over the month.
The best-selling RI Extended fund for the month was Nordea’s US Corporate bond Fund with receipts and asset rises of €135m. Second was Nordea’s Institutional Investment Fund, SICAV–FIS – CLO Fund, which grew by €100.3m. The Nordea sales block was only disturbed by Storebrand’s Sta A Norwegian bond fund which rose by €86.7m.The biggest RI Extended fund is Nordea’s International Fund – Sekura Fund with assets of €3.5bn. Second is the Nordea US Corporate bond Fund with €2.46bn. Third is Danske’s Invest Dannebrog Mellemlange Obligationer with €2.34bn.
SRI, or RI Screened funds as they are labelled by Lipper FMI, followed the mainstream funds market down, however, with sector losses of €666m.
Just three French SRI cash funds made it into above double figure sales. The French domiciled Aviva Monétaire ISR (SRI cash) lead the way with sales and asset appreciation of €375.9m. Second was BNP Paribas’ Money Prime Euro SRI fund, which grew by €320.5m. French insurer Macif’s Trésorerie Semestrielle ISR cash fund with inflows of €141.3m. The biggest RI Screened fund is Amundi’s Tréso Eonia ISR cash fund with €17.4bn. Second is Natixis’ Fonsicav fund with €2.64bn. Third is Allianz’s Securicash fund with €1.75bn.
For top 20 fund sales list see downloadable documents – left hand column