Ilirika takes over Delta's funds - Slovenians hold fifth of investment funds market in Serbia

(the headquarters of Ilirika in Ljubljana)

The investment funds management company (DZU) Ilirika will be running the property of investment funds Delta Plus and Delta Dynamic as of June 20, which will increase Ilirika's share in the Serbian investment funds market to about 20 percent.

Ilirika's acquisition of Delta's investment funds represents the biggest takeover of the management of funds in the Serbian market, worth RSD 205 million.

- With this acquisition, Ilirika has completed its palette of funds in the Serbian market and significantly increase the amount of assets, as well as the number of investors - DZU Ilirika CEO Gregor Zvipelj said at a press conference on Monday.

Belgrade-based Ilirika, of which founder is the namesake Slovenian group, will now be running four open-ended investment funds in the market of Serbia: Ilirika Global, Ilirika Gold, Delta Plus, and Delta Dynamic.

The value of the property of all four funds that Ilirika runs in Serbia amounts to RSD 240 million. At global scale, Ilirika's portfolio includes 25 investment funds whose property is worth about EUR 150 million.

Ilirika Gold is a sector fund that invests in gold and other precious metals. Ilirika Global invests in top-quality foreign shares. Delta Plus is a balanced fund, while Delta Dynamic is a share fund that invests in the shares of domestic companies.

- The investment policy of the funds that have been taken over will not be changed in the foreseeable future - said Ilirika Portfolio Manager Predrag Pavicevic and added that, in the future, after the analyses, the investments of Delta's funds would be geographically diversified.

- It is likely that we will first enter the markets where Ilirika already has its own funds and then the other markets in Europe and world wide. The more countries available to investors from Serbia to invest in, the smaller the risk to their capital - Pavicevic explained for eKapija.

As Chairman of the Managing Board of Ilirika Igor Stemberger stressed, the aim of the company in the Serbian market is development, for which, in his opinion, there are big potentials.

Stemberger also said that the investment in funds in Serbia, as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, ranged between 1 and 2 euros per capita, while such investment in Croatia and Slovenia amounted to EUR 800 and EUR 1,000 per capita, respectively.