According to a quarterly bulletin issued by CySEC, in the first quarter of 2022 total assets under management amounted to €11.1 billion marking a reduction of 3.9% compared with the previous quarter. This is the second quarterly decline in AUM following the marginal decline of 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Compared with the first quarter of 2021 assets under management marked an increase of 13.5%.

In the first quarter of 2022 CySEC supervised 322 Management Companies and Undertakings of Collective Investments (UCIs), 235 of which have operations. More specifically, it supervises 206 Externally Managed UCIs, 44 Internally Managed UCIs and 72 External Fund Managers. The total number of Management Companies includes 41 AIFMs, 66 Sub-threshold AIFMs, 4 UCITS Management Companies and 5 dual license entities (AIFMs and UCITS Management Companies).

In terms of the investment policy of UCITS, 84.6% were invested in transferable securities, followed by investments in bank deposits with 8.1% and investments in UCITSs and UCIs with 5.8%. AIFs, AIFLNPs and RAIFs invest mainly in Private Equity with 39.1% while the investment in Hedge Funds represents 11.4% of the AUM, CySEC added.

Total UCIS in operation amounted to 203. Comprising 80.4% of the total AUM, there are 184 UCIs domiciled in Cyprus (12 UCITS, 59 AIF, 58 AIFLNP and 55 RAIF).

Of the total 203 UCIs managed by UCIs Management Companies, 156 invest in Cyprus entirely or partially and €2.5 billion (22.5%) are investments made in Cyprus.

Of the investments in Cyprus, 66.3% were in Private Equity, while 12.4% of the investments in Cyprus are in Real Estate.

The majority of UCITs are Retail Investors (99.2%), while for AIF, AIFNLP and RAIF, 30.7% of them are Professional Investors, 57.4% Well-Informed Investors and only 11.9% Retail Investors.

Regarding the specific sectors that UCIs invested in, during the first quarter of 2022, AUM in the Energy sector totalled €346.2 million (3.117% of total AUM), while €28.8 million was invested in Fintech (0.259% of total AUM), €82.5 million in Shipping (0.742% of total AUM), €36.9 million, in the Sustainability sector (0.332% of total AUM) and €9 million in Cryptocurrencies (0.081% of total AUM).

Source: Cyprus Mail