Total Assets managed by Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs) in the third quarter of 2023 dropped by almost 20% compared with the previous quarter, driven downwards by the liquidation of units of two investment funds, Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has said.

According to a quarterly statistical bulletin for the third quarter of last year issued by CySEC, assets under management (AUM) declined to €8.61 billion, from €10.74 billion in the previous quarter, marking a quarterly drop of 19.8% whereas compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the reduction of assets under management (AUM) is 12.8%.

“The reduction in Assets Under Management is mainly due to the liquidation of units of two investment funds,” CySEC said in a press release, adding that the UCIs, managed by the Management Companies, had a Net Asset Value (NAV) of €8 billion.

Furthermore, 76% of the total AUM is held by 198 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus (13 UCITS, 54 AIFs, 49 AIFLNPs and 82 RAIFs). From the total 217 UCIs, 156 invest in Cyprus partially or entirely and these investments amount to €2.3 billion or 27% of the total Assets Under Management.

According to Cystat, 65.1% of the investments in Cyprus are in Private Equity, while the 14.4% are in Real Estate.

The vast majority of UCITS are retail investors (99.2%), while for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), AIF with Limited number of Persons (AIFNLPs) and Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIFs), 68.1% are well-informed investors, 20% of them are professional investors, and only 12.7% are retail investors.

By sector of investment, AUM in the Energy sector amounted to €536m (6.221% of total AUM), while €194.2m was invested in Fintech (2.254% of total AUM), €605m in Shipping (7.022% of total AUM) and €77.9m in Sustainable Investments (0.904% of total AUM).

Moreover, according to CySEC, in the third quarter of last year, CySEC supervised 335 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), compared with 334 during the second quarter of 2023 and 333 during the same period of the previous year, recording a slight increase of 0.30% and 0.60% respectively.

Of the 335 entities, 225 were Externally Managed UCIs, 36 Internally Managed UCIs and 74 managed by External Fund Managers. The total number of Management Companies includes 47 AIFMs, 53 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 3 UCITS Management Companies and 6 dual license entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies), CySEC added.