The asset management industry evolves, and although a few decades ago it was sector funds that had a strong presence in investors’ portfolios, funds came with attractive acronyms such as BRICs and now it is thematic funds. In recent years, the latter are gaining ground in investors’ portfolios, especially in Europe and also in Spain. On Europe reach a share of 51% (of total thematic assets worldwide), and there are more than 400 thematic funds domiciled in the region, but in Spain they already account for 5.6% of the industry, with a total of assets under management that exceed 15 billion euros.
There are management companies very focused on the issue of sustainability, such as BNP Paribas. This is how he commented Sol Hurtado – BNP Paribas “we are the first manager in environmental issues, with strategies as important as the energy transition, where we have the fund BNP Paribas Energy Transition, which has more than 3,000 million euros of assets and with an outstanding performance in 2020 ”.
The broadest thematic funds that group several themes in the same fund are those that constitute the group with the largest volume of assets, the largest size of assets managed. Although the growing popularity of ESG funds in Europe has also extended to the thematic investment universe. Also important, in terms of attracting investors, are the resource management funds, such as recycling and water management, which occupy the third place and assets of 29,000 million.
It is because of the above that the success of some management companies is explained, such as Pictet, which covers both funds that bring together various topics, as well as individual topics and therefore is a manager that is positioned as the one that achieves the largest assets under management in the region, fact is your background Pictet-Global Megatrends Selection the largest, with assets exceeding 14 billion euros. Allianz Global Investors also manages to position one of its thematic funds among the largest, the Allianz Global Artificial Intelligence.
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And while European investors have preferred actively managed funds as far as thematic touches, passive management has not lagged behind the sustainability boom and has significantly increased both exchange-traded fund launches and assets under management. In a year as turbulent as 2020, the Thematic ETFs tripled their equity, according to the latest Morningstar report, exceeding 22,700 million euros of assets under management and with record net flows of 9.5 billion euros, with more than half of the net inflows directed to thematic funds for energy transition or connectivity.
That is why Investment Strategies will hold a webinar at the end of June on thematic funds and where prominent managers will participate who will share their vision regarding this new way of investing.
