Fund companies that saw assets plunge in March as markets collapsed in response to the coronavirus pandemic have much better news to report from April.
Winnipeg-based IGM Financial Inc.’s assets under management (AUM) rose 8.1% last month, fresh off a 9.2% fall in March. The fund giant’s AUM on April 30 was $159.38 billion, just 2.5% lower than a year prior.
Toronto-based CI Financial Corp. also saw a rebound. The firm’s AUM was up 6.9% after a 11.7% drop in March, while its assets under administration (AUA) gained 6.5% after declining by 10.6% in March.
CI’s AUM in April totalled $118.8 billion, 10.3% lower than a year prior. The firm’s AUA of $47.5 billion was slightly higher than the total on April 30, 2019.
The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 10.8% in April, and the S&P 500 posted a 12.8% gain. Those results followed March declines of 17.4% for the S&P/TSX Composite and 12.4% for the S&P 500.
Of IGM’s subsidiaries, Mackenzie Investments saw the most significant April AUM gain — up 11% after a 9% March decline. Mutual fund assets rose by 6.9% and ETF assets were up 6.1% (after respective March declines of 8.9% and 9.6%). The firm’s biggest gain was in its sub-advisory and institutional business, which was up 56% from the previous month to $8.31 billion.
Mackenzie’s $70.02 billion in AUM on April 30 was up from $69.01 billion a year prior.
IG Wealth Management’s AUM bounced back 5.9%, while Investment Planning Counsel gained 4.7% in April.
After reporting net outflows in March, IGM reported inflows of $98.4 million last month. IG Wealth Management reported net client outflows totalled $35.7 million in April compared to $240.3 million in the same month last year.
Mackenzie’s investment fund net inflows of $212.9 million compared to net outflows of $2.5 million in April 2019.