The survey of Italian funds and Sicavs developed by the Mediobanca research office considers 972 Italian-law funds headed by the most important operators in terms of managed assets (24 for open-ended funds), as well as 1417 merged and liquidated funds 2013. The industry representativeness rate in terms of assets is 95% in the open-end funds sector and over 97% in the other categories (except closed-end and real estate). Compared to the previous edition, 154 more funds were reported, taking into account 90 merged or liquidated funds, as well as 15 funds for which the report was not made available.
Here are the highlights of the analysis:
– Positive net inflows after 9 years in the red
It was since 2003 that the subscriptions of Italian funds did not exceed the redemptions. In 2013, net inflows were positive for around 17 billion euro; overall, assets at the end of 2013 marked the third lowest amount in the last 16 years. The downsizing of the industry (still fourteenth in the international context; it was fourth in 2004) translates into an incidence of managed assets on GDP equal to 9% against 42% in 1999; Italy appears to be in strong contrast with Europe where the incidence rose from 48% to 75% in the same period.
– Positive management result
In 2013 the funds closed their accounts with a profit of 8,6 billion euro (on assets to manage which at the beginning of the year amounted to 201 billion). The average net return on equity can be estimated at 3,4%, which particularly benefited from the recovery of equity funds (11,7%) and balanced funds (5,6%), as well as pension funds, both contractual (5,4, 8,1%) and open (1,9%); bond funds stopped at XNUMX%.
- Management mode
Management costs fell to 1,2% of assets with a peak of 2,9% in the equity sector, a new all-time high (almost four times compared to US funds). Portfolio turnover (whose complete turnover occurs every 9 months) was also confirmed to be high, especially when compared with the average of US equity funds (which exceeds two years).
– Long-term evaluation
Long-term returns are still unsatisfactory; those who had invested in all Italian funds in the last 30 years would have suffered, compared to an annual investment in 12-month BOTs, a loss of the initial capital once (increased in the period by only 3,9 times against the 4,9 of the bots). On the basis of the risk-free rate, the result of open funds highlights a destruction of value equal to around 86 billion euros in the last fifteen years.
– 2014
According to the official statistics available, in the first three months of 2014 there was a prevalence of subscriptions over redemptions for 6,6 billion euro in Italian-law funds. Roundtrip funds (promoted abroad by Italian managers) recorded a net inflow volume of 13,1 billion. The performance of Italians in the period can be estimated at around 1,5%.
