Bond funds became more popular than balanced funds among German investors in July, a month that saw nearly €10 billion of inflows into the national funds industry.
Total new business amounted to just under €56 billion for the year-to-date 2014.
The month saw inflows of €9.7 billion, of which €6.9 billion was invested in Spezialfonds, which are for institutional clients only, and €5.6 billion in retail funds. Outside of investment funds, investors withdrew assets of €2.8 billion.
Bond funds recorded the highest net inflow in the retail fund sector at €3.5 billion, according to a monthly investment statistics report from BVI, the German funds industry association. Short-term euro bond funds were popular with investors at €1.2 billion, and the sales of balanced funds continued to improve with inflows of €1.9 billion for the month.
The BVI found equity funds to be the segment with the highest assets under management (AUM) at €276 billion overall, and received €0.4 billion in fresh capital for the month.
Property funds saw four funds wound up liquidated assets, meaning outflows of €0.8 billion dwarfed the €0.2 billon of July inflows.
BVI found that, in general, German asset management is much more focused on investment funds than elsewhere in Europe, with over 80% of assets managed this way, and fund wrappers also being used more widely.
BVI members handle assets in excess of €2.2 trillion in both investment funds and mandates by managing directly or indirectly the capital of 50 million private clients.
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