Sales of SRI funds plummet, green funds hold steady

Total estimated net sales of European SRI funds plummeted to just €47.2m during August, according to the latest available figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FMI, the investment data group. The drop was marked compared to July’s sector sales of €822.3m, and the €760.7m that moved into SRI funds in June. The top 20 SRI funds all took in money over the month, but outside the top 20 the rest of the universe was broadly negative on sales. 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. The best selling fund was Allianz’s French-based Securicash SRI fund, which netted an estimated €73.3m. Second placed was Impax, the London-based fund manager, with sales of €51.6m for its Dublin-domiciled Environmental Markets fund. Third was Swedish bank Handelsbanken with sales of €39.5m in its SSF – Global Ethical fund. The largest RI Screened fund remains Allianz’s French-domiciled Securicash SRI fund with €2.93bn. Second is Société Générale’s SGAM Invest Monetaire ISR with €1.7bn. Third is Allianz’s French-domiciled AGF Valeurs Durablesfund with assets of €1.06bn. The total value of the RI Screened sector is €47.7bn.
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) were much more buoyant during August with net inflows of €261.8m. Green themed funds have stayed in positive sales territory for the last three months with inflows of €145.1m in July and €290.3m in June.
The largest seller in August was the UK-based Co-Operative’s CIS Sustainable Diversified Trust with net inflows of €85.9m. The second biggest seller was Blackrock’s New Energy Fund, up by €27.8m. Third was Finnish group Pohjola’s OP-limatso fund with sales of €22.2m. The largest green ‘RI Extended’ fund remains Blackrock’s New Energy Fund with €2.46bn. Second is Pictet’s Water Fund with €2.27bn. Third is Pioneer’s Global Ecology fund with €859.9m. The sector value is €15.8bn. Mainstream equity fund sales for August were €12.1bn in a total sector worth €1.5 trillion.
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