Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments under supervision remained 328 during the first quarter of the year, according to the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a press release, it says that assets under Management of Collective Investments for the first quarter of 2024 reached €9.1 bn recording an increase by 6.5% compared to the previous quarter and decrease by 14.89% compared to the corresponding period last year. 

Based on the quarterly statistics bulletin for the first quarter of 2024 issued by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), which presents the most important data for the Collective Investments sector in Cyprus, CySEC supervises 328 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), as opposed to 335 during the same period of the previous year, recording a decrease of 2.09%.

It says that the total number of 328 entities includes 226 Externally Managed UCIs, 33 Internally Managed UCIs and 69 External Fund Managers.

The total number of Management Companies includes 42 AIFMs, 51 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 3 UCITS Management Companies and 6 dual license entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies).

Meanwhile, based on the data for the first quarter of 2024, the Total Assets Under Management (AUM) reached €9.1 billion, recording an increase of 6.35% since the fourth quarter of 2023, whereas comparing with the same period in 2023, the decrease amounts to 14.89%.

Furthermore, the UCIs, managed by the Management Companies, had a Net Asset Value (NAV) of €8.6 billion.

The press release adds that the 59% of the AUM relates to Assets managed by the AIFMs, 18% by the AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies, 11% by the Sub-threshold AIFMs, 11% by the UCITS Management Companies and only 1% by the Regulated UCIs that are managed by Foreign Fund Managers.

The 90.6% of UCITS’ Assets under Management was invested in Transferable Securities and 6.9% was invested in UCITS and other UCIs while 1.4% in bank deposits. Regarding AIFs, AIFLNPs and RAIFs 32.6% of the Assets Under Management related to investments in Private Equity, while the investment in Real Estate represents the 17.3% of the AUM.

Investments in Hedge Funds account for 12.2% while Investments in Funds of Funds constitute 11.1% of the AUM of the total Assets Under Management.

Furthermore, it notes that there is a total of 224 UCIs with operations. The 75% of the total AUM is held by 199 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus (13 UCITS, 52 AIFs, 46 AIFLNPs and 88 RAIFs).

From the total 224 UCIs, 161 invest in Cyprus partially or entirely and these investments amount to €2.4 billion or 26.8% of the total Assets Under Management. The 65.7% of the investments in Cyprus are in Private Equity, while the 13.5% are in Real Estate.

Regarding categorising unitholders, the vast majority of UCITS are retail investors (99.2%), while for AIFs, AIFNLPs and RAIFs, 67.8% are well-informed investors, 19.8% of them are professional investors, and only 12.4% are retail investors.

Moreover, as regards the specific sectors that UCIs invested in, during the first quarter of 2024, AUM in the Energy sector amounted to €533.3m (5.858% of total AUM), while €220.4m was invested in Fintech (2.421% of total AUM), €657.9m in Shipping (7.226% of total AUM) and €95.1m in Sustainable Investments (1.044% of total AUM), the press release concludes.