Net funds inflows for the year rose to €664bn across the industry in November 2017. The previous high for net inflows was €414bn in 2014.
“Structural demand for fixed income products has driven inflows across Europe this year, with the largest bond houses and flagship funds benefiting the most from the flow of assets,” said Ali Masarwah, director, EMEA editorial research at Morningstar.
The data points to BlackRock emerging with the title of most successful European open-end fund provider for 2017 as net new assets surpassed the €60bn threshold in November.
Morningstar said demand for BlackRock’s actively managed open-end fixed income, alternative and equity funds meant the business posted net inflows of €2.8bn for the month of November alone.
November last year also saw €23.6bn of inflows into fixed income funds across Europe, boosting total flows for the year to €270bn. Equity funds posted healthy net inflows of €98bn in the first eleven months of the year, making 2017 the best year for open-ended equity funds since 2013.
Allocation funds raised €9.8bn in November, taking the total to over €120bn for the year.
Masarwah said: “The continuation of the bull market throughout 2017 has driven positive investor sentiment across Europe, with asset managers enjoying record inflows as a result.
“It is safe to assume that 2017 will be remembered as the year of the bond fund, in spite of low yields and warnings of extremely high valuations.
“While fixed income funds have been the biggest beneficiaries of positive sentiment however, it has been a strong year across most asset classes with long-term funds seeing a healthy organic growth rate of eight per cent for the year to end-November.”
