Unit trusts FUM 'plateaued': Rainmaker

Rainmaker Information's latest data highlights that despite a 13% annual growth in funds under management (FUM) across all managed funds, unit trusts only made gains through positive market returns over the 12 months to March end.

In the Managed Funds Net Flows Report, which tracks 160 investment managers' performances over the period, 77 had net inflows and 83 had net outflows.

The overall sample's total FUM, which include 1221 products of ETPs and unit trusts, increased $113 billion or 13% from $855 billion to $968 billion.

Unit trusts gained 7% or $44 billion over 12 months, primarily driven by $45 billion in positive market returns, "as the segment's minor negative flow would have meant FUM plateaued."

ETP, on the other hand, had a total gain of 32% year on year ($69 billion), Rainmaker said.

Of the total increase in FUM, 21% came from net flows and 11% from market gains.

In terms of net flows for individual products, ETPs had 237 products with 12-month positive net flows versus 71 with negative net flows (77% positive). This contrasts with unit trusts which had a ratio of positive to negative flows of 44% (404 had positive net flows versus 509 with negative net flows).

Categorising top net flows by businesses, Vanguard topped the chart with $17.6 billion inflows over the period, followed by Betashares ($11.8 billion), BlackRock ($8.2 billion), Macquarie Asset Management ($6.9 billion) and VanEck ($3.9 billion).

Meanwhile, of the 1221 products in the sample, 641 had positive net flows and 580 had negative net flows over 12 months. The median net flow for products with positive net flows was $45 million while the median net outflow for products with negative flows was $26 million.

Across asset classes, short duration bonds were the fastest growing sector, increasing 15% over the period with $9.1 billion in net inflows.

Further, there were 13 asset class sectors which had positive net flows (largest to smallest): international large caps, bonds (credit/high yield), bonds diversified, Australian large caps, multi-asset class, cash, alternatives, infrastructure, emerging markets equities, Australian equity income, international small caps, Australian small caps, and international property.

Financial Standard and Rainmaker Information are both part of ISS Market Intelligence.