Alternative UCITS funds continued experiencing strong capital inflows during 2017 with the market reaching EUR435 billion in assets under management by the end of June, a strong +10.2 per cent growth since beginning of the year.
That’s according to the LuxHedge Alternative UCITS Market Update which reveals that the most popular alternative strategies in UCITS format were Fixed Income Arbitrage (AUM +14.7 per cent), Global Macro (AUM +13.9 per cent) and Multi Strategy (AUM +12.9 per cent). Equity Long/Short funds stayed somewhat behind on this trend and recorded a +4.9 per cent increase in assets. With the VIX index at historical lows, Volatility Arbitrage funds have lost in popularity since beginning of the year (AUM -12.6 per cent).
LuxHedge writes: “Also the amount of Alternative UCITS funds keeps increasing steadily. At LuxHedge, we recorded 126 new fund launches and 79 liquidations since beginning of the year. The total LuxHedge Alternative UCITS database currently counts 1375 funds, spread over 17 alternative strategies. “
Tracking the average fund performance, the LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS Index recorded a first monthly loss since beginning of the year: -0.25 per cent in June (+0.78 per cent YTD). Global Macro and Fixed Income Arbitrage UCITS funds remained relatively flat during the month of June with their respective indices advancing +0.12 per cent and +0.02 per cent. Also Event Driven and Merger Arbitrage funds kept their ground with a +0.17 per cent index performance in June, extending the gains since beginning of 2017 to +4.1 per cent YTD.
Declines were recorded by Equity Hedge funds with the Equity Long/Short Europe UCITS index dropping -0.48 per cent (YTD +1.54 per cent) and Equity Market Neutral UCITS declining -0.11 per cent (YTD 1.50 per cent). Also Multi Strategy funds lost ground: -0.39 per cent in June (+0.18 per cent YTD). Although returns vary strongly between different managers, CTA/Managed Futures UCITS continued to suffer the largest losses on average with the CTA/Managed Futures UCITS index losing -2.01 per cent in June (-4.49 per cent YTD).
