CIFA and CIPA upbeat over prospects of Investment Funds sector

President of the Cyprus Investment Funds Association (CIFA) and the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (Invest Cyprus) Andreas Yiasemides and Evgenios Evgeniou respectively said they were optimistic over the Investment Funds’ sector despite geopolitical tensions due to the war in Ukraine.

Despite the declining trend in assets under management globally, optimism is driven by recent decision of Saudi Aramco to establish an investment fund in Cyprus and MUFG Investor Services to set up a new operational centre in Cyprus, two cases which are consider as a “show case” for the sector.

“As CIFA we believe in the resilience and the momentum of the sector which continued to grow steadily despite challenges,” Yiasemides told a press conference.

According to the data of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission for the first quarter of 2022, the investment funds’ assets under management amounted to €11.1 billion while the number of licensed entities reached 322, marking an increase of 39.7% and 53.3% respectively compared with the pre-Covid pandemic era.

Yiasemides acknowledged that geopolitical tensions and the war in Ukraine have impacted the sector globally, with Cyprus in the first quarter of 2022 registering a decline of 3.9% in AUM, the first reduction after 25 consecutive quarters of increase.

He stated that investment funds have invest in the Cypriot economy a total of €2.5 billion in fields such as shipping, renewables, education, technology and real estate.

“There are many challenges and many prospects,” he said, noting that Cyprus can become a hub for investment funds wishing to exploit investment opportunities both in Europe as well as the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.

On his part, Evgeniou expressed satisfaction over the investment fund sector growth in the last years.

He also said that the sector has a tangible and quantifiable contribution to the Cypriot economy which is reflected in investments in the island, the creation of jobs and increased revenues for the state which emerge mainly through the diversification of the country’s growth model.

He also said that the investment funds sector contributes to the transformation of Cyprus’ professional services sector.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that investment funds is a new and promising aspect of the services sector,” he added, noting that the sector is one of the three pillars of Invest Cyprus’ action to attract foreign direct investments in Cyprus.