R1,3 billion invested in offshore funds in December quarter

More than R1,3 billion was invested in offshore collective investments in the December quarter reflecting heightened interest from both institutional and retail investors. This was ahead of the R1 billion inflow in the previous quarter.

Association of Collective Investments, chief executive Di Turpin says that retail inflows were R803 million while institutions invested R500 million offshore.

“There has been more interest in investing offshore which is in line with the local industry figures where foreign rand denominated funds have been attracting more flows than usual. In the past quarter these foreign funds inflows were 14 percent of the total domestic figure.

“The bulk of the funds went into fixed interest investments – R1,3 billion from the institutions and R394 million from retail investors. While retail investors channeled R246 million to equity funds there were outflows of some R926 million by institutions on profittaking. In the previous quarter both institutions and retail each invested just over R400 million for a R889 million total inflow into equity funds.

“The inflows into asset allocation funds were R293 million – as against the previous quarter’s R107 million outflow.”

ACI figures show that nearly a net R1,5 billion was invested offshore last year which was well down on 2006’s R6,9 billion. Retail investors have R46,4 billion offshore while the institutions’ total is R61,5 billion. There were 365 foreign currency denominated funds at the end of December (343 in the previous quarter).

“Foreign Fund assets were slightly up at R107,9 billion (R106,6 billion). In terms of assets, the foreign Collective Investments industry has more than doubled from R46 billion at the end of 2004 to R107,9 billion at the end of 2007.”