By James Langton

(January 15 – 14:40 ET) – The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is reporting that December net sales, excluding $13.2 billion in re-invested distributions, totalled $1.4 billion.

Total industry assets under management increased to $420.3 billion during the month, up 2.7% from November. Assets are up 7.9% from $389.7 billion a year ago.

Despite all the unconsumated merger talk throughout the industry, Investors Group finished the year as the asset leader, with $44.5 billion. It is followed by AIM Fund Management at $34.95 billion, which is in turn closely followed by Royal, Fidelity and Mackenzie.

Apart from firms involved in mergers, notably AIM, AGF and TD, strong asset growth is evident at Fidelity, CI, AIC, Phillips Hager & North, Altamira, Synergy and Clarington. Among the big firms, Royal, Mackenzie and Templeton saw below average growth.

Firms such as Spectrum, Dynamic, and Guardian saw their assets decline in the year, while December was particularly kind to BMO, Templeton, Clarington and Northwest.

In December, money market funds accounted for more than half of the net new sales, $743.9 million worth. Of the remaining $691 million, foreign equities remained the top asset class with net new sales of $270 million, just outpacing U.S equities at $259.3 million and Canadian equities at $227.6 million. Fixed income funds, both foreign and domestic, saw net redemptions during the month.

IFIC also reports the total number of members’ unitholder accounts at 50.3 million, a 10% increase from a year ago.

“It was a good finish to the year,” says Tom Hockin, IFIC president and CEO. “December sales were up 87% over December 1999 and the sales for 2000 overall exceeded 1999 by 28%. We are pleased to see Canadians have reaffirmed their confidence in mutual funds.”