Raiffeisen Asset Management (RAM) investment manager, with assets worth 2.43bn lei (576m euros) under management at the end of February, climbed onto the leading position in the biggest investment fund managers’ ranking, after the top position had been held by Erste Asset Management for three years.
The domestic investment fund industry held net assets worth 6.22bn lei (1.57bn euros) in late February and is dominated by major managers, Raiffeisen and Erste, both belonging to Austrian financial groups. The two players control 80% of the market, with another 15 managers sharing the rest of 20%.
However, competition between the two players is very tight: Raiffeisen owns 39.15% in the investment fund market (that includes mutual funds and closed-end investment funds) and Erste 39.12%.
Erste AM remains the leader of the mutual fund market, with assets worth 2.432bn lei under management, closely followed by Raiffeisen with 2.323bn lei.
Starting the second half of last year, RAM strongly stepped up the asset growth pace, mainly counting on Romanians’ appetite for lei and foreign currency saving.