The number of funds available in Europe fell by 425 in the second quarter this year, with both liquidations and mergers up.
Lipper, which compiled the data, says there are 31,877 mutual funds registered for sale in Europe. Of those, 8,515 are domiciled in Luxembourg and 5,035 in France.
Although 432 funds were created in Europe during Q2, 502 funds were liquidated and 355 merged.
Equity funds account for 37% of the funds available for sale, followed by mixed asset funds (25%) and bond funds (22%). Money market funds account for 5% of the market, while the rest is split between real estate funds, commodities funds, guaranteed funds, and funds of hedge funds.
The European fund universe has been shrinking consistently since the first quarter of 2011.
Christoph Karg, content specialist for Germany and Austria at Lipper, and his colleague Detlef Glow, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa research, say there is still a lot of money in the market seeking investment opportunities.
“With the ongoing policy of low interest rates from the leading central banks, the major stock exchanges are close to their all-time highs,” they write. “The asset management industry should benefit
from this general economic situation, but there is still a lack of new products being created and new trends being established.”
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