Energy and shipping sectors dominate investment allocation

The number of Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs) in Cyprus stood at 323 during the third quarter of 2024, according to the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

In addition, the total value of assets under management recorded a slight decrease, dropping to €9.1 billion.

Based on its quarterly statistics bulletin for the third quarter of 2024, CySEC supervises 323 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), as opposed to 335 during the same period of the previous year, recording a decrease of 3.58 per cent.

The total number of 323 entities includes 222 Externally Managed UCIs, 33 Internally Managed UCIs and 68 External Fund Managers.

The total number of Management Companies includes 44 AIFMs, 49 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 3 UCITS Management Companies and 5 dual licence entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies).

Based on the data for the third quarter of 2024, the Total Assets Under Management (AUM) reached €9.1 billion, recording a decrease of 2.43 per cent since the second quarter of 2024.

When compared to the same period in 2023, there was an increase of 6.08 per cent.

Furthermore, the UCIs, managed by the Management Companies, had a Net Asset Value (NAV) of €8.7 billion.

CySEC stated that 59 per cent of the AUM relates to Assets managed by the AIFMs, 18 per cent by the AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies, 11 per cent by the Sub-threshold AIFMs, 11 per cent by the UCITS Management Companies and only 1 per cent by the Regulated UCIs that are managed by Foreign Fund Managers.

The 89.7 per cent of UCITS’ Assets under Management was invested in Transferable Securities and 7.9 per cent was invested in UCITS and other UCIs while 1.3 per cent in bank deposits.

Regarding AIFs, AIFLNPs and RAIFs, 33.1 per cent of the Assets Under Management related to investments in Private Equity, while the investment in Real Estate represents the 12.7 per cent of the AUM.

Moreover, investments in Hedge Funds account for 9.8 per cent while Investments in Funds of Funds constitute 9.2 per cent of the AUM of the total Assets Under Management.

The commission also revealed that there is a total of 221 UCIs who currently have operations.

In more detail, 75.2 per cent of the total AUM is held by 199 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus (12 UCITS, 50 AIFs, 43 AIFLNPs and 94 RAIFs).

From the total 221 UCIs, 166 invest in Cyprus partially or entirely and these investments amount to €2.6 billion or 28.12 per cent of the total Assets Under Management.

The 67.7 per cent of the investments in Cyprus are in Private Equity, while the 14.3 per cent are in Real Estate.

When it comes to categorising unitholders, the vast majority of UCITS are retail investors (99.1 per cent), while for AIFs, AIFNLPs and RAIFs, 67.9 per cent are well-informed investors, 19.5 per cent of them are professional investors, and only 12.6 per cent are retail investors.

Regarding the specific sectors that UCIs invested in, during the third quarter of 2024, AUM in the Energy sector amounted to €505.9 million (5.536 per cent of total AUM), while €254 million was invested in Fintech (2.780 per cent of total AUM).

Finally, €722.1 million was invested in Shipping (7.901 per cent of total AUM) and €85.9 million in Sustainable Investments (0.940 per cent of total AUM).