Top fund managers barely make several million-RON profits despite 2.5bn RON assets

The biggest mutual fund manager, Erste Asset Management, with assets worth 1.5bn RON in its portfolio, ended last year with 0.2m RON profit, while the second ranking one, Raiffeisen Asset Management, handling over one billion RON, gained 2.2m RON in 2009. 2009 brought a return to profit and solid turnover growth for the two fund managers, both controlled by financial groups from Austria, Erste and Raiffeisen. The over tenfold increase in managed assets to a total of 1.07bn RON at the end of 2009 sent Raiffeisen Asset Management onto the second position in the biggest managers' ranking and brought it a 2.2m RON profit, as well as turnover tripling to 10m RON last year. The manager ended 2008 with losses of around 200,000 RON and 3.5m RON turnover. For the industry leader, Erste Asset Management, which posted a fivefold increase in assets in 2009 to over 1.5bn RON, IT infrastructure, promotion and distribution investments dragged its profit down to 230,000 RON, while turnover tripled to 9m RON. In 2008, the manager registered net losses of above 3.1m RON.