Offshore funds R586m outflow in March quarter

Offshore retail funds are continuing to attract investors in spite of volatile world markets, says Di Turpin (pictured right) chief executive of the Association of Collective Investments.

“Net inflows in these foreign currency denominated retail funds totaled R459m in the March quarter on top of the R803m in the previous three months.”

But institutional funds had a net outflow of just over R1 billion during the quarter – R443m from equity funds and R602m from fixed interest. This brought the total net investment for all foreign denominated funds (institutional and retail) to a negative R586m during the quarter.

The ACI figures show that foreign retail equity funds were the preferred destination the past quarter, with net inflows from this segment totaling R210m. Asset allocation funds attracted R185m and fixed interest R64 million.

Turpin says that foreign funds total assets reached R117,9 billion during the quarter and there are now 369 funds available to local investors.

“Assets have more than doubled over the past five years and these funds are regulated by the Financial Services Board and subject to the same governance as is applied to local rand based funds.”