Assets under Management in Cyprus exceed €11bn

The total value of Assets under Management (AuM) of Collective Investments reached €11.6 billion in the third quarter of 2021, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

This represents an 8.6 per cent increase over the second quarter’s then-record figure of €10.7 billion.

According to the commission’s data, CySEC currently supervises 298 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), 217 of which also have operations.

In more detail, 187 UCIs are classified as Externally Managed, 49 UCIs are Internally Managed, and 62 are designated as External Fund Managers.

Moreover, the total number of Management Companies includes 33 AIFMs (Alternative Investment Funds), 70 Sub-threshold AIFMs, four UCITS Management Companies (Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) and four dual license entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies).

In terms of the Net Asset Value (NAV) of the UCIs managed by Management Companies, this reached €9.8 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

An estimated 57 per cent of all Assets under Management relates to assets managed by the aforementioned AIFMs, while 14 per cent are managed by sub-threshold AIFMs.

The remaining 29 per cent of assets is managed by AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies (21 per cent), UCITS Management Companies (7 per cent) and Regulated UCIs managed by Foreign Fund Managers (1 per cent).

In terms of the preferred investment approach of UCITS, the vast majority of investments are made in Transferrable Securities (86.3 per cent), while 6.6 per cent of investments are made in UCITS and UCIs.

The commission added that AIFs, AIFLNP (Alternative Investment Fund with Limited Number of Persons) and RAIFs (Reserved Alternative Investment Fund) primarily invest in Private Equity (38.8 per cent), while 20 per cent of Assets under Management are diverted to Hedge Funds.

In addition, CySEC stated that 139 of the 187 UCIs in operation, 139 invest in Cyprus either wholly or partially, with €2.3 billion (19.5 per cent of assets) representing investments made in Cyprus.

Finally, 62.2 per cent of investments in Cyprus are in Private Equity, while 13.4 per cent are made in the property market.