As of end September 2021, NAV of Croatian UCITS funds stood at HRK 21.5bn (+24.6% YoY).
Since asset managers play a significant role in the Croatian capital market, it is particularly interesting to see how they have been performing since the beginning of 2021. As visible from the graph below, NAV of all funds has witnessed a steady increase for 18th consecutive month, and as of end September stood at HRK 21.5bn (+1.7% MoM or +24.6% YoY).
The biggest absolute increase on a YTD basis of AUM was observed in deposits and cash, which grew by HRK 827.9m (+19% ). Bonds followed with HRK 766.3m (+6.5%). Investment funds recorded an absolute increase of HRK 544m (+69%). On a MoM basis, bonds and shares have observed the highest absolute increases by HRK 456m (+4%) and HRK 53m (+2.3%), respectively.
Looking at the asset composition of Croatian UCITS funds, investment funds have noted a slight increase in total AUM by 1.9 p.p. YTD and currently account for 6% of the total AUM, which is over 10y average of 2.9%.
We also note that domestic shares account for 26.3% of total equity holdings. Domestic equity has so far in 2021 seen a 22.2% YTD increase, while foreign equities have observed a 40.4% YTD increase.
Bond holdings continue to be the largest asset class of Croatian UCITS funds accounting for 56.8% of the total AUM. This represents a decrease by as much as 5.4 p.p. YTD. We note that the shift in structure comes from the increase of other asset classes like shares, investments funds, loans on money market. Bonds remained relatively flat YTD with its assets amounting to HRK 12.5bn (EUR 1.6bn).
Total Assets of All Croatian UCITS Funds (2015 – September 2021) (HRK bn)
Source: HANFA, InterCapital Research
Net contributions in September amounted to HRK 493.6m, reaching a total of HRK 3.1bn YTD. Investments have increased significantly in 2021 as net contributions in September are up 39% MoM and 49% YoY. When comparing with pandemic year of 2020 when net contributions were in 9M 2020 at HRK -5.6bn, strong improvement is evidenced in this year. In 9M 55% of net contributions went to bond funds, namely HRK. 1.7bn. Other type of investment funds grew to become a sought-after category as net contributions amounted to HRK 568m.
