Trust funds have grown – Newspaper Kommersant No. 51 (7496) of 03/27/2023

In 2022, the volume of endowment funds managed by management companies more than tripled, exceeding RUB 120 billion. This was facilitated by the formation by the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation of six endowment funds, most of which were transferred to market management companies, as well as the emergence of several smaller funds. Despite the turbulence in the stock market, the results of the management of most of the endowments turned out to be positive.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the study of the National Association of Endowments (NAE) of endowment funds in trust management of management companies (MC). Data were requested from 25 CCs, 16 of them provided the final data. According to NAE estimates, at the end of the year, the volume of endowment assets managed by the management company amounted to 121 billion rubles.

Taking into account the fact that more than 15 billion rubles. (according to Kommersant’s estimates based on public data) may be managed by BCS Management Company, the final result is more than three times higher than in 2021 (43.5 billion rubles, according to Expert RA).

The total number of endowment funds exceeded 300. The growth took place against the backdrop of turbulence in the Russian stock market and a symbolic decline in assets held in trust by management companies. According to the Central Bank, over the past year, assets in remote control decreased by 15 billion rubles, to 1.82 trillion rubles. The main reason for the growth of endowment assets is Vladimir Potanin’s donation to his charitable foundation. “The Fund has formed several target capitals, the total assets of which at the end of last year amounted to 90.7 billion rubles,” notes Alexei Anisin, director of the NAE.

In November, the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation disclosed that its six endowment funds are managed by six management companies: TKB Investment Partners, Trustunion Asset Management, Trinfico Management Company, RVM Capital, BCS Management Company and RB Capital . As a result, the first four took the leading positions in the ranking, displacing the former leaders. Of the managers to whom the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation transferred one of its endowments, only the BCS Management Company did not provide NAE data, nor did it respond to Kommersant’s request.

Dmitry Pigarev, Head of Target Capital and Corporate Clients at TKB Investment Partners, notes that several more large clients entered the market, which also had an impact on a significant increase in the volume of the FCC market. As a result, the management company with an indicator of 24.18 billion rubles. took first place in the rankings.

Despite a tough year overall, the EMs ended it quite well.

Ekaterina Zaitseva, General Director of Region Asset Management Management Company, said that following the results of the past year, the return on portfolios of endowment funds under the company’s management amounted to 8.2–12.6% per annum. “About 15% of the funds showed a decrease in assets, 40% remained at the level of the previous day, 45% showed an increase in assets,” notes Alexey Anisin. According to Dmitry Pigarev, funds sank, in the portfolios of which a significant part is occupied by shares, as well as foreign exchange assets, which lost their value due to the strengthening of the ruble.

Due to the fact that most of the contracts for the management of endowment funds are concluded for a year, but with automatic prolongation, the market hopes that over time the market leaders will change if the endowments of the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation are transferred to other market management companies.

In the meantime, Roman Sokolov, Managing Director of Otkritie Management Company, believes that the main competition in the market will be for smaller endowments.

Their emergence is facilitated by constantly changing regulation. Aleksey Anisin notes that in 2022, amendments to 275-FZ “On the formation and use of endowment capital of NCOs” were adopted twice, expanding opportunities for investing endowment funds, as well as protecting endowment owners in a situation of increased market risk.

According to Ekaterina Zaitseva, the development of endowments could be facilitated by tax incentives for legal entities, through which contributions to endowment funds are formed. Dmitry Pigarev believes that state co-financing in some endowments would also be important.

Vitaly Gaidaev