Fund managers expect money from abroad

The deregulation of the capital account as of April next year, together with the difference between yields on the Romanian market and on international markets, will induce strong growth of the Romanian mutual fund market over the next two years, also due to the money that will come from abroad.

Fund managers expect the value of assets managed by the open investment funds in Romania to increase by 800% over the next two years to a total of 400 million euros.

Non-residents can invest in mutual funds today and still be allowed to invest in banking deposits after next April.

“New fund managers will emerge on the market and we will see a migration of money from banking deposits to the open investment funds. We expect the total value of the assets managed by open investment funds to reach 400 million euros by 2006,” said the chairman of Certinvest, Eugen Voicu on Wednesday. Certinvest manages four investment funds and is the oldest fund manager on the Romanian market.

At present, the total value of assets managed by open investment funds comes to nearly 50 million euros.

There is also a further 50 million euros in terms of the assets belonging to a venture capital fund set up by German bank DePfa and used to invest in fixed income ROL-denominated instruments.

The chairman of the professional association of fund managers says he is even more optimistic than this. “I believe these estimates are not as optimistic as they can be, and it will be possible to exceed them if we take into account the deregulation of the capital account alone,” said Dan Nicu, chairman of the National Union of Collective Investment Bodies (UNOPC). The National Securities Commission (CNVM) has applications pending for the licensing of new investment funds, which will be the first two funds in Romania to have their fund shares denominated in euros.