Equity’s share of unit trust market halves

What you need to know:

Insurance tightens grip on the collective investment schemes
The drop pushed the lender down to position 10 from sixth by market share
The country’s 16 collective investment schemes managed Sh57.22 billion pooled from retail investors at the end of 2017, a marginal rise of 2.20 per cent

Equity Group’s #ticker:EQTY share of the unit trust market more than halved last year as CIC Insurance tightened its grip on collective investment schemes.

Market regulator Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has disclosed that pooled funds managed by Equity Investment Bank Unit Scheme fell by a massive 57.48 per cent to Sh1.28 billion last December from Sh3.01 billion the year before.

The drop pushed the lender down to position 10 from sixth by market share, CMA said in the quarterly Statistical bulletin released Wednesday.

Marginal rise

The country’s 16 collective investment schemes managed Sh57.22 billion pooled from retail investors at the end of 2017, a marginal rise of 2.20 per cent over Sh55.99 billion a year earlier.

Cash managed by CIC Unit Trust Scheme expanded by Sh2.24 billion to close the year at Sh15.4 billion, helping grow its share to 26.92 per cent.

CMA data for the second quarter of last year showed by the end of March, its unit trust scheme had Sh13.49 billion in funds under management, accounting for 24.2 per cent of the industry total of Sh55.8 billion.

The market share of CIC’s closest rival, British American Unit Trust Scheme, fell to 16.97 per cent from 19.60 per cent in 2016.

British American’s funds dropped by Sh1.48 billion or 13.23 per cent year-on-year to Sh9.71 billion.

Old Mutual

Assets under the management of Old Mutual Unit Trust Scheme also dropped 7.03 per cent to Sh13.40 billion, reducing its market share to 13.4 per cent from 14.44 per cent in 2016.

ICEA Lion and CBA unit trust schemes grew their market share to 10.46 and 7.29 per cent, respectively, from 9.28 per cent and 5.22 per cent a year earlier.

ICEA scheme’s assets rose by 13.02 per cent to Sh10.46 billion, while CBA’s funds surged 39.93 per cent to Sh7.29 billion.

The top five unit trust schemes controlled 75.04 per cent of the market, a growth of 1.89 percentage points over 2016.

“The largest portion of the total assets under management was invested in securities issued by the government,” CMA said.