28/12/2015
German institutionals prefer Spezialfonds
German institutional investors are still hungry for “Spezialfonds,” vehicles dedicated especially to them. “The Spezialfonds is the first choice of institutional investors when they decice to invest indirectly in financial markets. These funds privilege alternative investors, diversification outside of traditional asset classes and real estate,” says Clemens Schuerhoff, director of Kommalpha, who carried out a study of Spezialfonds.41% of institutionals surveyed for the study say they have invested as much as 75% of their asstes in Spezialfonds, 20 points more than last year.As of the end of August 2015, gross inflows to institutional funds represented EUR152.2bn on the German market and EUR77.5bn in terms of net inflows. Total assets in Spezialfonds came to EUR1.300trn, according to Kommalpha.When they invest in Spezialfonds, institutionals look first at the past performance of the vehicles, Kommalpha finds. The study predicts that new creations of new Spezialfonds will primarily involve the alternative and real estate asset classes. Institutional funds dedicated to this asset class have been particularly dynamic in the past few years. Real estate Spezialfonds have gone from EUR17bn in assets in 2005 to EUR60bn as of the end of August 2015, Kommalpha states.
