Assets return to fund companies during April rebound

Fund companies that saw assets plunge in March as markets collapsed in response to the coronavirus pandemic have much better news to report from April.

Winnipeg-based IGM Financial Inc.’s assets under management (AUM) rose 8.1% last month, fresh off a 9.2% fall in March. The fund giant’s AUM on April 30 was $159.38 billion, just 2.5% lower than a year prior.

Toronto-based CI Financial Corp. also saw a rebound. The firm’s AUM was up 6.9% after a 11.7% drop in March, while its assets under administration (AUA) gained 6.5% after declining by 10.6% in March.

CI’s AUM in April totalled $118.8 billion, 10.3% lower than a year prior. The firm’s AUA of $47.5 billion was slightly higher than the total on April 30, 2019.

The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 10.8% in April, and the S&P 500 posted a 12.8% gain. Those results followed March declines of 17.4% for the S&P/TSX Composite and 12.4% for the S&P 500.

Of IGM’s subsidiaries, Mackenzie Investments saw the most significant April AUM gain — up 11% after a 9% March decline. Mutual fund assets rose by 6.9% and ETF assets were up 6.1% (after respective March declines of 8.9% and 9.6%). The firm’s biggest gain was in its sub-advisory and institutional business, which was up 56% from the previous month to $8.31 billion.

Mackenzie’s $70.02 billion in AUM on April 30 was up from $69.01 billion a year prior.

IG Wealth Management’s AUM bounced back 5.9%, while Investment Planning Counsel gained 4.7% in April.

After reporting net outflows in March, IGM reported inflows of $98.4 million last month. IG Wealth Management reported net client outflows totalled $35.7 million in April compared to $240.3 million in the same month last year.

Mackenzie’s investment fund net inflows of $212.9 million compared to net outflows of $2.5 million in April 2019.

Mark Burgess

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Mark was the managing editor of Advisor.ca from 2017 to 2024.