Italy Mutual Funds See Outflows For Second Consecutive Month

Italian mutual funds posted a net outflow for the second month in a row in October, totalling EUR1.3 billion, according to figures released Friday by the country's fund management association, Assogestioni.

The amount was less than the EUR1.74 billion that went out of funds in September.

The outflows were primarily from money-market funds, from which investors withdrew EUR2.0 billion.

Stock funds took in EUR704 million, while those for bonds had an inflow of EUR146 million.

Hedge funds suffered outflows of EUR225 million.

Asset management in Italy is dominated by the country's largest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI), through its Eurizon and Banca Fideuram units.

Rival UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI) competes through its Pioneer Investments division.

Both banks have announced plans to sell or list their respective asset management businesses to strengthen their capital ratios.

Apart from Intesa and UniCredit, shares of smaller asset management companies such as Azimut SpA (AZM.MI), Mediolanum SpA (MED.MI) and Banca Generali SpA (BGN.MI) are sensitive to the monthly data as their profit is linked to income from fees.

-Gilles Castonguay, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]