Fund sales tepid in June: IFIC

Mutual fund sales were “decent” in June, according to preliminary data compiled by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, totalling between $1.46 billion and $1.96 billion.

“June is the month when Canadians begin to wind down and take summer vacations. Still, we expect June sales to come in at a decent $1.7 billion,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice-president of member services and communications with IFIC. “Markets were less buoyant in June than in May and total assets under management are expected to drop by 2.5% to about $701 billion.”

Despite the projected inflows, market forces beat the industry up in June. Net industry assets under management for the month of June will be between $698.5 billion and $703.5 billion, down approximately 2.5% from last month’s total of $719.3 billion.

RBC Asset Management announced net fund sales in excess of $1.2 billion, with $1 billion of that going into money market funds. Long-term funds attracted $259 million. Assets under management decreased by $600 billion, or 0.7%, in June.

RBC’s newly acquired Phillips, Hager & North division was hit by net redemptions totaling $126 million and AUM fell $800 million, or 4%, in June.

Mackenzie Investments reported new net money totaling $152.4 million, on gross sales of just over $1.1 billion. Total assets under management have fallen over the past 12 months, from $65.0 billion to $61.2 billion, at June 30, 2008.

CI Financial proclaimed the month its “best June ever” in terms of net sales, taking in $442 million, with $415 million in long-term funds and $27 million in money market funds. Total retail assets under management at the close of June stood at $65.1 billion.

AGF Management reported $327.5 million in net redemptions from its long-term funds, but pointed out that about $200 million of that was due to a single client’s rebalancing. Gross sales of long-term funds were $443 million, and total assets under management were $49.6 billion.

Also reporting preliminary sales data, Mavrix Fund Management posted net redemptions of $10.9 million on gross sales of $4 million for Mavrix Mutual Funds. Assets under management fell 3.36% in June to $539.1 million. The company pointed out, however, that sales of two limited partnerships “more than offset the sales results for Mavrix mutual funds,” with gross proceeds of $42 million to date.

Filed by Steven Lamb, Advisor.ca, steven.lamb@advisor.rogers.com

(07/03/08)