Assets of charitable foundations closed the first half of the year with symbolic growth

In the first half of 2023, the assets of the largest endowment funds grew by only 1.6%, to RUB 138 billion. This was largely the result of a negative revaluation of Rosbank’s share portfolio, which tripled the size of the segment last year. On the whole, the situation on the stock market contributed to the high profitability of management. Nevertheless, market participants believe that the ability to buy assets in friendly countries will be useful for diversifying funds.

Kommersant got acquainted with a study by the National Endowment Association (NAE), according to which, in January-June, the assets of endowment funds (the same as endowment funds are used to finance non-commercial projects) increased by 1.6%, to 137.8 billion rub. Last year, the segment showed a three-fold increase in assets under management (see Kommersant on March 27), but primarily due to the donation by Vladimir Potanin to his charitable fund of assets (mainly shares of Rosbank) in the amount of over 90 billion rubles. The total number of endowment funds has grown by nine since the beginning of the year to 314.

The market has returned to “evolutionary growth”, which was preceded by an abnormally strong surge in the formation of several target capital for a very large amount, says Nikolai Antipov, director of the center for working with institutional and corporate clients of Alfa Capital. In particular, the indicators were affected by the decline in the value of Rosbank shares, which lost 8.9% in the first half of the year. As a result, the transferred portfolio lost about 7 billion rubles in value. The newly formed funds, says Ekaterina Zaitseva, CEO of Region Asset Management, did not have a significant impact on the overall market volume due to their small size.

“In a situation of economic uncertainty, the needs of beneficiaries for financial support are growing, while the volume of donations is decreasing. Organizational difficulties and the high cost of their maintenance often serve as a barrier to creating new endowments,” explains Lyudmila Panteleeva, director of the Philanthropist endowment fund.

However, in general, the securities market showed very good dynamics, which had a positive impact on the results of endowment fund management. Over the first half of the year, the Moscow Exchange index grew by 30%, the index of government bonds – by 2.8%, corporate bonds – by 4.4%. “The opportunity to earn was across many asset classes. It is especially worth noting the instruments with protection against the devaluation of the ruble – replacement bonds and gold, ”explains Dmitry Pigarev, Head of Target Capital and Corporate Clients at TKB Investment Partners. For most portfolios of endowment funds managed by this company, the yield for the first half of the year was 15-25%, he noted.

Isolation of the Russian market has little effect on the work of the management companies in managing endowments, since instead of the Eurobonds of Russian issuers, which the funds could buy, they now have access to replacement and yuan bonds. “The opportunity to invest in high-quality instruments with an interesting yield has been preserved,” Mr. Pigarev believes. Even the narrowing of liquidity, which causes major players to suffer, is not critical for target capital management. “So far, the volume of endowment funds on the scale of the entire Russian market is not so significant, so this factor also did not have a significant impact on management results,” noted the First Management Company.

At the same time, the isolation of the Russian market limits the possibility of expanding the instrumentation for endowments. The last time this happened was in March 2022, when management companies got the opportunity to invest funds in exchange-traded mutual funds and clearing participation certificates (CPUs). NAUFOR noted that there were no new initiatives for additional expansion.

“Now there are no instruments that are not available for investments of endowment funds that correspond to the goals of such investments,” said Ilya Vanin, Vice President of NAUFOR. According to Dmitry Pigarev, it would be interesting for managers to enter the markets of friendly countries, the purchase of assets in which will increase country and currency diversification. Since the beginning of the year, Alfa Capital, Ingosstrakh Investments and Pervaya Management Company have gained access to the markets of India and China (see Kommersant on March 15), but have not yet launched products targeted at these markets.

Vitaly Gaidaev