By the end of September 2023, Slovenian mutual funds AUM amounted to EUR 4.46bn, which is an increase of 15.4% YoY, 12.8% YTD, but a decline of 1% MoM.
The latest report on the Slovenian mutual funds’ performance has been released by the Slovenian Securities Market Agency, ATVP. According to the report, the total AUM of Slovenian mutual funds amounted to EUR 4.46bn, representing an increase of 15.4% YoY, 12.8% YTD, but a decrease of 1% MoM. This marks the 2nd month in a row that the AUM has declined on a MoM base, but the YoY data still shows that growth continues (15.4% YoY growth this month vs. 10.7% growth last month). However, the lower base recorded in the same period last year could be the reason for this “relatively higher” growth YoY, while the MoM data shows there has been a slowdown.
Breaking this down further and looking at the asset structure of the funds, on a YoY basis, the largest absolute growth was recorded by shareholdings, which grew by EUR 521m, or 19.8%. Following them we have bonds at EUR 93m, or 15%, investment funds, at EUR 40m, or 17%, and finally, money market holdings, which increased by EUR 29m, or almost 50% YoY. Meanwhile, on a MoM basis, the largest increase was recorded in cash holdings, which grew by EUR 34.7m, or 21.6%. On the other hand, shareholdings recorded a decrease of EUR 63.6m, or 2%, followed by a EUR 20.1m decline in investment funds, or 6.9%, as well as a decrease of EUR 9.9m, or 1.4% in bond holdings.
Total assets of Slovenian mutual funds (June 2007 – September 2023, EURbn)
Source: ATVP, InterCapital Research
Of course, the change in the value of these funds can come in several ways. Firstly, the change in the inherent value of the underlying assets. Secondly, the decision of the fund managers to re-allocate certain funds from one asset type to another. Thirdly, the decision of the investors of these funds to increase/decrease their investments. To gauge this, we can look at the net contributions of the funds, which amounted to EUR 35.6m in September 2023, an increase of 62% MoM, and 68% YoY. However, despite this increase, the last twelve months recorded net contributions of EUR 257.9m, which is still 19% lower than the same period a year ago. Besides the increase in the net contributions, September marked the continued growth in the number of subscribers, which reached 525.3k, an increase of 0.4% MoM, and 3.8% YoY.
Net contributions into the Slovenian mutual funds (January 2016 – September 2023, EURm)
Source: ATVP, InterCapital Research
Out of all the asset categories in the funds, the largest is maintained by shares, at 70.8%, which is an increase of 2.5 p.p. YoY, but a decrease of 0.7 p.p. MoM. Following them we have bonds at 15.9% of the total, representing a 0.1 p.p. decrease both YoY and MoM, as well as money market, deposit & cash holdings, at 6.6%, with a decrease of 2.6 p.p. YoY, but an increase of 0.9 p.p. MoM. Finally, we have investment funds, which accounted for 6.1% of the total, increasing by 0.1 p.p. YoY, but decreasing by 0.4 p.p. MoM. As the shareholdings are the largest category by far, it is also worthwhile to look at how they developed. Breaking this down further, home issuers’ equity securities amounted to EUR 54.2m, increasing by 3.5% YoY, but decreasing by 0.7% MoM. These accounted for 1.72% of the total equity holdings. As such, foreign issuers’ equity securities amounted to EUR 3.1bn, growing by 20.1% YoY, but decreasing by 2% MoM.
Equity holdings of Slovenian UCITS funds (October 2007 – September 2023, EURm)
Source: ATVP, InterCapital Research
This would mean that for the 2nd month in a row, the decline in the value of foreign equity securities has been the driver of the overall MoM decreases of AUM we have witnessed. Given the current macroeconomic and geopolitical situation, however, this isn’t that surprising. Furthermore, if we look at what grew the most MoM, it was the cash holdings, one of the most liquid, and least risky types of assets.
