CySEC reports growth in collective investment assets despite fewer entities

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) on Thursday reported that the total assets under management (AUM) of Collective Investments in Cyprus reached €10.7 billion during the first quarter of 2025.

According to the commission, this marks a 6.64 per cent increase from the previous quarter.

CySEC stated that it currently supervises 322 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), a slight decrease of 1.8 per cent compared to 328 entities in the same period last year.

The total of 322 entities comprises 223 Externally Managed UCIs, 30 Internally Managed UCIs, and 69 External Fund Managers.

Among the Management Companies, there are 45 Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs), 46 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 3 UCITS Management Companies, and 5 entities holding dual licences as both AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies.

The Net Asset Value (NAV) of the UCIs managed by these companies amounted to €9.9 billion in the first quarter.

Sixty-three per cent of the AUM was managed by AIFMs, while 17 per cent was handled by both AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies.

Sub-threshold AIFMs managed 9 per cent of assets, UCITS Management Companies managed 10 per cent, and only 1 per cent was managed by regulated UCIs under Foreign Fund Managers.

Regarding the investment composition of UCITS’ assets under management, 86.7 per cent was invested in Transferable Securities.

Nine per cent was invested in UCITS and other UCIs, with 3.3 per cent allocated to bank deposits.

As for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Alternative Investment Funds LNPs (AIFLNPs), and Reserved Alternative Investment Funds (RAIFs), 31 per cent of assets were invested in Private Equity, 16.6 per cent in Real Estate, 12.5 per cent in Hedge Funds, and 12.3 per cent in Funds of Funds.

The remaining 27.6 per cent was classified under “Other” investment categories.

CySEC also said that this edition of the quarterly bulletin introduces, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the two largest investment categories among AIFs, AIFLNPs, and RAIFs — Private Equity and the Other category.

The new data is intended to give managers and investors more insight into capital allocation and to assist in evaluating returns by strategy.

Within Private Equity investments, 36.2 per cent was related to Growth Capital, 34.2 per cent to multistrategy capital investments, 10.1 per cent to Venture Capital, and 4.5 per cent to mezzanine financing.

For the “Other” category, 32.2 per cent of investments was in equity capital, 16.8 per cent in fixed income, 7.6 per cent in cash and cash equivalents, with commodities and infrastructure following at 2.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

What is more, a total of 224 UCIs were operational during the first quarter of 2025.

Of the total assets under management, 72.4 per cent is held by 198 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus, which include 11 UCITS, 51 AIFs, 41 AIFLNPs, and 95 RAIFs.

Among the 224 UCIs, 162 invest at least partially in Cyprus, with these local investments amounting to €2.9 billion, or 27.19 per cent of the total AUM.

Seventy per cent of these investments in Cyprus are in private equity, while 12.8 per cent are in real estate.

Regarding investors in UCITS, the overwhelming majority of 99.1 per cent are retail investors, with a total of 8,831 UCITS investors recorded.

Among AIFs, AIFLNPs, and RAIFs, there are 3,443 investors, of which 63.4 per cent are classified as well-informed investors, 24.5 per cent as professional investors, and only 12.1 per cent as retail investors.

The breakdown of assets by sector shows that during the first quarter of 2025, €497.0 million was invested in the energy sector, representing 4.627 per cent of total AUM.

Investments in the fintech sector amounted to €224.2 million or 2.087 per cent of total assets.

Shipping investments stood at €657.3 million, or 6.120 per cent of total AUM.

Sustainable Investments accounted for €104.3 million or 0.971 per cent of assets under management.

The Quarterly Statistics Bulletin issued by CySEC is publicly available for further details.