SRI retail fund sales recover slightly, green funds flat – Lipper stats

European retail SRI fund sales bounced back into the black in February this year after several months of poor sales, albeit principally boosted by a significant collect by one French money market fund, 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 total inflows and market appreciation of €1.74bn for the month. The figures were pumped up by Natixis’ Fonsicav cash fund, which took in just over €1.6bn for the month. Safety continued to be the watchword of retail investors with cash and bond funds leading the way. No equities funds featured in the top ten sellers. The second highest grosser was Belgian manager, KBC’s Participation SRI Corporate Bonds fund with an asset rise of €97.9m. Third was French insurer MACIF’s Court Terme ISR (short term cash SRI fund) with €90.9m in new money. The biggest RI Screened fund remains Amundi’s Tréso Eonia ISR cash fund with €12.8bn. In second place is Fonsicav with €4.42bn. Third is Allianz’s Securicash SRI fund with €1.9bn.Sales of green themed and norms-based European RI retail fund sales – labelled ‘RI Extended’ by Lipper FMI – continued to drop overall, although many funds took in small amounts of new money. The sector was down overall by €46.4m, better than recent major asset falls. The best seller was Norwegian financial services group, Storebrand’s Stat A Norwegian bond fund, with receipts and market rise of €193m. Second was another Norwegian fund, KLP’s emerging markets equities fund, Aksje Fremvoksende Markeder Indeks I, whch rose by €36.7m. Third was Storebrand’s global equities fund, Global Indeks I with €28.6m. The biggest RI Extended fund is Danske’s Danish bonds fund Danske Invest Dannebrog Mellemlange Obligationer with €2.4bn.
Second is Pictet’s Water fund with €2.3bn.
Mainstream equity fund sales were up by €6.3bn in February.
See downloads – left hand column – for full sales chart