Excluding December, investors poured €158bn into fixed interest vehicles last year. Morningstar identified a huge appetite for yield, with investors piling into global emerging market bond funds and high yield.
The total inflows into global emerging market bond funds – including local and hard currency vehicles – was in excess of €20bn for the year, eclipsing the €11.3bn achieved by corporate bond funds.
Bond specialist Pimco recorded inflows of €29bn during the year, more than twice the amount achieved by second-placed AllianceBernstein.
Only two of the 10 fund providers with the greatest yearly inflows deviated from the bond trend: Aberdeen was the main beneficiary of the high inflows into emerging-markets equity funds, while M&G benefited from a preference for allocation funds.
However, it has also been noted that net inflows of €4.7bn made November the strongest month for equity funds in Europe since April 2011. Global emerging market equities, Asia-Pacific ex-Japan and global large-cap blend funds led the way.
“Although interest in equity funds picked up in November, equity funds have had a bleak year, marked by outflows of €11bn and little potential for a strong enough December to pull them out of the red,” said Ali Masarwah from Morningstar’s European research team.
“However, year-to-date outflows are nowhere near the levels seen during the sell-offs of 2011 and 2008 when equity funds saw outflows of €41.8bn and €84.9bn, respectively.”
