Fund redemptions lower in November

November was another rough month for the mutual fund industry, though nowhere near as bad as October, according to the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

The industry as a whole saw net redemptions of between $801 million and $1.3 billion, compared to redemptions of $8.4 billion in October and $4.5 billion in September.

“We remain cautiously optimistic,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice-president of member services and communications with IFIC. “Asset declines slowed last month as did net redemptions. Hopefully, the actions taken this month by governments worldwide, coupled with the transition to a new government and new economic team in the United States will continue to calm markets and instill confidence by all market participants.”

IFIC estimates net assets of the mutual fund industry for the month of November were between $548.9 billion and $553.9 billion, down approximately 3.48% from October’s total of $571.3 billion.

On a firm-by-firm basis, Fidelity reported $263 million in net sales, with $214 million of that going into long term funds, and $49 million into money market funds.

CI Financial posted net sales of $140 million for the month, on gross sales of $788 million. Year-to-date, CI has posted net sales of $1.6 billion. President Stephen MacPhail pointed to the SunWise Elite Plus Segregated Fund program as a driver of sales.

RBC Asset Management reported net sales of $130 million, including sales from its Phillips, Hager & North division. Money market funds had net sales of $589 million and long term funds had net redemptions of $459 million.

Mackenzie Financial reported preliminary net redemptions of $170.5 million, on gross sales of $554.2 million. Assets under management have fallen by $8.7 billion over the past 12 months, to $54.5 billion as of November 30, 2008.

AGF Management posted net redemptions of long-term mutual funds totaling $114.0 million. Gross sales were $179.6 million.

“While the market environment continued to pose challenges for the mutual fund industry, net redemptions from our long-term funds were lower than in the previous two months,” said Blake C. Goldring, chairman and CEO, AGF Management Limited.

Specialty shop Mavrix Fund Management reported net redemptions of $4.6 million on gross sales of $2.2 million. The firm’s assets under management decreased in November by 14.9% to $265.4 million.

“Despite current market challenges and decreased sales in the mutual fund industry overall, we saw reduced Mavrix Mutual Fund redemption activity in November while finalizing another successful resource LP offering,” said David Balsdon, CCO and secretary-treasurer.

(12/02/08)