January 2024 Monthly Report

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of January 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,255,736 members, i.e. 6,911 (0.31%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 80.8% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 14.6% and 4.6% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 7,940 new members, 7,763 (97.8%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,029 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in January amounted to EUR 113.7m (0.6% of net assets at the end of December). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 22.2m (0.1% of net assets at the end of December), decreasing by EUR 13.2m compared to the previous month.

Net assets of MPFs amounted to EUR 20.5bn, rising by EUR 0.3bn (1.5%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 1.8% for category A, 1.1% for category B and 0.1% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 13.7% for category A, 9.4% for category B and 3.8% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation stood at 7.3% for Mirex A, 5.2% for Mirex B and 3.3% for Mirex C^[2].

MPFs’ bond investments totalled EUR 12.6bn (61.6% of total assets), making their share decrease by 1.4 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 0.5 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 22.7% of MPFs’ total assets (EUR 4.7bn). Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.9%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 8.8% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds reached EUR 2.2bn (10.8% of assets), increasing by 0.1 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to EUR 784.3m, i.e. 3.8% of MPFs’ assets.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of January 2024, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.5% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.02%, making the number of members of these funds reach 396,354 and 48,675 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in January amounted to EUR 11.5m (0.9% of their net assets at end-December 2023), decreasing by 72.8% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 6.2m, rising by EUR 2.2m (55.0%) compared to payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 68.7%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 26.9%, while those made due to death accounted for 4.4% of total payments. As regards payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.3m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 1.3m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 1.7m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In January, VPFs’ net assets increased by EUR 15.4m (1.2% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.3bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from 0.2% to 3.3%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from -7.0% to 15.3%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 53.9% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.6% share and investment funds with a 10.1% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on a monthly basis by 1.1 p.p., the equity share rose by 0.4 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds rose by 0.2 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In January 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. Their total gross written premium collected in the first month of 2024 amounted to EUR 132.3m, of which EUR 23.9m (17.2%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 115.4m (82.8%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (37.2%), followed by insurance of land vehicles (18.6%) and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.0%). The amount of claims settled in January 2024 reached EUR 95.2m. EUR 26.1m of this amount related to life insurance (27.4%), while EUR 69.1m related to non-life insurance (72.6%). Within the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (40.4%), insurance of land vehicles (20.5%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (12.6%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 32.0m in January 2024, decreasing by 28.9% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 3.1% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 42.1bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 24.2bn, bonds to EUR 17.9bn and ETFs to 28m. As for stock indices, the largest monthly rise was recorded by CROBEXkonstrukt (16.0%), while CROBEXtransport recorded the smallest monthly rise (0.1%). The main ZSE stock index (CROBEX) also rose, as did CROBEXtr (both by 5.2%). The ZSE bond indices (CROBIS and CROBIStr) recorded a monthly growth of 0.3% and 0.5% respectively. ERICSSON NIKOLA TESLA d.d. stock was the stock most traded in January, with its turnover amounting to EUR 3.2m (12.2% of the overall trade in January) and a 5.5% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FIRMS

In the fourth quarter of 2023, there were 22 legal entities authorised to provide investment services, namely 5 investment firms, 11 credit institutions and 6 investment fund management companies. On a quarterly basis, the value of assets managed by investment firms rose by 7.4%, while the value of assets managed by credit institutions and investment fund management companies recorded a rise of 6.7% and 4.7% respectively. The value of assets managed by legal entities authorised to provide investment services increased from 1.4% (credit institutions) to 39.7% (investment firms) at an annual level. In December 2023, total assets under the custody of investment firms reached EUR 977.8m, declining by 30.1% on a quarterly basis, while the value of assets under the custody of credit institutions rose by 29.1% (EUR 19.2bn).

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In January 2024, there were 108 UCITS operating on the market. Their total net assets amounted to EUR 2.4bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 85.5m or 3.8% compared to the previous month. Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 39.2% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of January, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 15.9% and 11.2% of the total net assets of UCITS respectively. Positive asset-weighted average monthly returns were generated by all UCITS, namely equity (2.9%), feeder (0.8%), other (0.4%), balanced (1.0%), money market (0.3%) and bond (0.9%) funds. Asset-weighted average annual returns at the end of January 2024 stood at 20.2% for equity funds, 6.1% for balanced funds, 6.1% for other funds, 5.1% for feeder funds, and 1.2% for bond funds.

The net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 150.5m (a 2.8% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 2.2%.

LEASING COMPANIES

At the end of 2023, there were 15 leasing companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at EUR 3.5bn, an increase of 18.8% relative to the end of the preceding year. The total profit recorded by leasing companies rose by 39.4% (EUR 52.0m) on an annual basis. The outstanding contract value of active contracts recorded a 28.5% annual increase in operating lease, while its annual growth in finance lease reached 19.6%. The value of newly concluded contracts in operating and finance lease rose by 55.3% and 22.4% respectively at an annual level.

FACTORING COMPANIES

At the end of 2023, there were 3 factoring companies operating on the market. Their total assets amounted to EUR 17.1m, while their profit reached EUR 1.0m. The transaction volume in 2023 was dominated by classic factoring totalling EUR 82.6m (86.7% of all transactions), as were receivables, with classic factoring amounting to EUR 8.2m (80.9% of all receivables) at the end of the year.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.