Aggregate value of investors‘ assets, administered by open-end mutual funds in Slovakia reached SKK 16 billion in late 2002. This is a year-on-year increase of 130 percent. Funds of local asset management companies controlled 90 percent of the Slovak market with the volume of administered assets at SKK 14.33 billion. Slovaks entrusted assets of SKK 1.65 billion to foreign funds, the executive director of the Slovak Asset Management Companies Association, Peter Goceliak informed SITA.

Net sales of open-end mutual funds, representing the difference between the value of sold and returned units, were SKK 7.5 billion last year. Money-market funds enjoyed the highest popularity, which acquired SKK 3.47 billion of new investments in 2002. This category thus attracted 45 percent of the volume of total net sales for 2002. Bond funds were also much in demand, winning SKK 2.51 billion of investments last year. Master funds were the least popular among investors.

Mixed funds, which used to be the most liquid in the past, maintained a 32-percent share of the respective market in Slovakia. However, bond funds got ahead of them, winning 35 percent of the market. Money-market funds significantly improved their position, acquiring 23 percent, leaving behind equity funds (9 percent) and master funds (less than 1 percent).

Productivity of money-market funds ranged between 6.27 and 7.77 percent last year. Nevertheless, productivity of money-market funds, focused on the euro was over 3.5 percent. Crown bond funds reported productivity between 9.72 and 14.24 percent. Permanent political and economic tension reflected in price fall on all the main stock exchanges and subsequent depreciation of units of almost all equity funds. The only exception were mutual funds, aimed at the eastern-European emerging markets. Productivity of mixed and master funds largely depended on the portion of shares in assets of individual funds.

Tatra Asset Management is the largest asset management company, operating on the Slovak market. With SKK 5.1 billion of administered assets, it controls almost 32-percent of the local market. It is followed by Prva Penzijna (SKK 1.98 billion in open-end and SKK 1.74 billion in closed-end funds), and Asset Management of Slovenska Sporitelna (SKK 2.72 billion of assets). The level of SKK 1 billion of assets is also exceeded by VUB Asset Management (SKK 1.76 billion) and J&T Asset Management (SKK 1.75 billion).