Erste AM changes strategy and goes after institutional clients for mutual funds

The biggest fund manager, Erste Asset Management, handling assets worth over 2.2bn RON (518m euros), is tailoring its strategy to the new market conditions, increasingly shifting its focus toward institutional investors, after small retail ones have been the growth driver of assets in the past three years.
The first step Erste AM is taking toward attracting major institutional investors, such as pension funds, is directing fixed-income securities funds in its portfolio to longer term placements, of three to five years.
Amid an increasingly visible downward interest trend, the weight of banking deposits in the portfolio of BCR Monetar fixed-income securities fund dropped by around 10% to 633m RON in the first half. Another change is the reduced exposure to Greek banks and boosting assets deposited in Romanian-held banks.
Part of the sums withdrawn from banking deposits shifted to T-bills and corporate bonds.
“We’ve diversified the structure of placements so that the fund should be closer to institutional investors, not just retail clients. We’ve also expanded the duration of placements to three to five year maturities to stir the interest of pension funds (…),” said Drago[ Neac[u, chairman of Erste Asset Management.