European SRI funds slow down sales slide, green funds continue to lose assets: RI Lipper stats

European retail SRI fund slowed their sales slide during the month of December 2011 but continued to shed assets along with mainstream equity markets, according to the latest available figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FMI, the investment data group. SRI, or RI Screened funds as they are labelled by Lipper FMI, recorded outflows and market depreciation of €153.8m over the final month of last year, but were propped up by receipts into cash and bond funds that went some way to avoiding the significant losses in November of €1.4bn in assets. The best selling RI Screened fund for the month was Natixis’ Fonsicav with sales of €1.1bn as investors continued to sit out the market turmoil by holding cash. Dutch fund manager ING’s ING (L) Renta Fund Sustainable Fixed Income was the only fund to break a cash stronghold amongst the top four funds, recording the second best inflows of €175.1m. The best selling equity fund, Handelsbanken’s Global Ethical Fund, was fifth highest grossing fund with €51.7m in newmoney over the month. The biggest RI Screened fund is Amundi’s Tréso Eonia ISR cash fund with €13.4bn. Second is Amundi’s Tréso ISR fund with €6.9bn.
However, sales of green themed and norms-based European RI retail fund sales – labelled ‘RI Extended’ by Lipper FMI – continued to drop, losing €781.5m in December after losses of €321.2m in November. No fund made it into treble sales figures. The best seller for the month was Storebrand’s Norwegian Likviditet money market fund, which rose by €79.7m. Second was Pictet’s Water fund, which was up by €59.2m Third was Swiss fund manager Vontobel’s Global Responsibility Emerging Markets fund with €30.4m.
The biggest RI Extended fund is Danske’s Danish bonds fund, Danske Invest Dannebrog Mellemlange Obligationer, with €2.4bn in assets. Second is Pictet’s Water fund with €2.16bn. Mainstream equity fund sales were down by €9bn for the month of December.
See downloads – left hand column – for full sales chart