Industry Updates

UCITS Alternative Index Global down 0.08% in December, 1.41% for 2014

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

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Opalesque Industry Update -
UAI Indices
UCITS alternative funds end the year on a mixed note. After good results in November (up 0.89%), most strategies returned weak performances in December with -0.08% on average. As a result the UAI Global concludes the year with a performance of 1.41%. The best annual results are recorded by the CTA funds (up 10.15%) which benefited from robust trends in the currency, equity and energy markets. The next best performing strategies are Multi-Strategy and Macro with progressions of respectively 1.79% and 1.71%. They are followed by Long/Short Equity with a modest performance of 1.37% despite a favorable equity market environment. On the negative side, commodity funds return the worst results for the second consecutive year finishing with -5.45% after having lost -1.98% in 2013. The UAI Blue Chip advances by 1.10% in December and closes the year on a progression of 2.43%. The equally weighted index tracking the performance of the 50 largest funds outperformed both the broad and the fund of funds market.

UAIX Indices
Half of all UAIX strategy indices advance in December. With a monthly gain of 6.68% the UAIX CTA is by far the best performing index for the period. It is followed by the UAIX Equity Market Neutral and the UAIX Long/short Equity with progressions of respectively 2.02% and 0.66%. On the negative side the UAIX Commodities and the UAIX Macro display the worst monthly results with -1.78% and -1.71%. Thanks to its strong results in November and December, the UAIX CTA finishes the year up 19.74%. The strong movements in the currency markets which occurred during August and November and benefited CTA managers also profited to the FX managers contributing to the UAIX FX and helped it finish the year with a progression of 4.78%. The next best performing UAIX indices are the UAIX Equity Market Neutral and the UAIX Long/Short Equity with respectively 4.65% and 3.42%. On the negative side the worst results are recorded by the UAIX Commodities with a result of -7.19% for the year.

Assets under management
In 2014 UCITS absolute return fund assets record their strongest annual progression ever. With inflows totaling 70 billion EUR during the year ? a progression of 37% - more than 260 billion EUR are now managed by UCITS absolute return funds. While the progression was steady across the year, not all strategies attracted assets. The ones that recorded the largest inflows are Fixed Income, Long/Short Equity and Multi-Strategy with progressions totaling respectively 26, 16 and 12 billion EUR. If one adds the inflows of Equity Market Neutral to the ones of Long/Short Equity the combined inflows in the two equity focused strategies reaches 23 billion EUR. With a progression of about 140% in 2014 Event-Driven funds records the largest relative progression. Without surprise strategies with negative performances all lost assets in 2014. As mentioned in our previous letters the assets progression is not evenly distributed. A few large funds account for most of the assets growth while about 40% of all funds have less than 50m EUR under management. We expect the growth of assets to continue in 2015.

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