January 2025 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of January 2025, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,339,415 members, i.e. 5,423 (0.23%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 77.3% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 18.7% and 4.0% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 6,688 new members, 6,518 (97.5%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,265 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in January amounted to EUR 131.8m (0.6% of net assets at end-December). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 31.6m (0.1% of net assets at end-December), falling by EUR 10.3m compared to the previous month.

At the end of January 2025, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 23.8bn, rising by EUR 591.7m (2.6%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 3.74% for category A, 2.26% for category B and 0.13% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 15.49% for category A, 10.97% for category B and 3.56% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 8.06% for Mirex A, 5.48% for Mirex B and 3.35% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of January, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 14.2bn (59.6% of total assets), making their share decrease by 1.2 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 1.4 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 24.5% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.8bn) at the end of January. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.8%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.6% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.5bn (10.5% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase by 0.1 p.p. relative to the previous month. Cash and deposits amounted to 4.0% of the assets, or EUR 960.5m, decreasing by 0.1 p.p. on a monthly basis.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of January 2025, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.1%, making the number of members of these funds reach 419,006 and 49,635 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in January 2025 amounted to EUR 12.9m (0.9% of net assets at end-December), decreasing by 71.5% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 7.2m in January, increasing by 37.0% on a monthly basis. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 62.8%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 32.9%, while those made due to death accounted for 4.3% of total payments in January. With respect to total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.6m was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 1.5m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 1.5m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies. In January 2025, VPFs’ net assets increased by EUR 35.4m (2.5% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.48bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -0.02% to 4.8%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.0% to 15.1%. 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 assets, followed by stocks with a 26.2% share and investment funds with a 10.5% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on the monthly basis by 1.4 p.p., the equity share rose by 1.3 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.3 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In January 2025, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first month of 2025 amounted to EUR 153.5m, of which EUR 22.8m (14.8%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 130.8m (85.2%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (35.9%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (19.3%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.2%) and other property insurance lines (8.0%). The value of claims settled in the first month of 2025 reached EUR 91.9m. EUR 25.4m (27.6%) of this amount related to life insurance, while EUR 66.6m (72.4%) related to non-life insurance. In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (43.7%), insurance of road vehicles (20.2%), other property insurance lines (7.8%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (6.5%).

CAPITAL MARKET

In January 2025, the total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 73.2m, decreasing by 53.1% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 4.5% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 52.6bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 30.6bn, bonds to EUR 18.7bn, money market instruments to EUR 3.3bn and ETFs to EUR 73m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (15.6%) was recorded by CROBEXkonstrukt, while CROBEXnutris recorded the largest monthly decline (-1.4%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a monthly increase of 9.1%, while CROBEXtr rose by 9.2%. The CROBIS bond index recorded a 0.3% monthly decrease, while CROBIStr declined by 0.1%. KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in January, with its turnover amounting to EUR 8.1m (19.1% of the overall trade in stocks in January) and a 22.8% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FIRMS

At the end of 2024, there were 21 legal entities authorised to provide investment services, namely 6 investment firms, 11 credit institutions and 4 investment fund management companies. The value of assets managed by investment firms rose by 9.4% on a quarterly basis, the value of assets managed by credit institutions increased by 7.3%, while the value of assets managed by investment fund management companies grew by 14.7%. At the end of December 2024, total assets under custody of investment firms stood at EUR 1.1bn, a 5.6% increase on a quarterly basis, while the assets under custody of credit institutions increased by 11.5%, reaching EUR 22.3bn.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

At the end of January 2025, there were 117 UCITS operating on the market. Their total net assets amounted to EUR 3.3bn, increasing by EUR 111.0m or 3.4% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments to UCITS in January were positive, amounting to EUR 64.2m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 51.9m), equity funds (EUR 20.0m), balanced funds (EUR 3.1m), feeder funds (EUR 0.8m) and funds categorised as “other” (EUR 0.3m), while negative net payments were recorded by bond funds only (EUR -11.9m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 25.1% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of January, funds categorised as “other” accounted for 24.0%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 17.2% and 9.0% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In January 2025, all types of UCITS recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely equity funds (6.1%), balanced funds (1.9%), feeder funds (1.5%), “other” funds (0.6%), money market funds (0.2%) and bond funds (0.1%).

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 232.7m (a 7.1% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 6.7%.

LEASING COMPANIES

At the end of 2024, there were 15 leasing companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at EUR 4.1bn, a 17.5% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. At the same time, the total profit recorded by leasing companies rose by 11.1% on an annual basis, reaching EUR 57.3m. The outstanding contract value of active contracts in the operating lease segment rose by 16.5% at an annual level, while in the finance lease segment it increased by 19.2%. The value of newly concluded contracts in operating and finance lease rose by 3.2% and 15.0% respectively at an annual level.

FACTORING COMPANIES

At the end 2024, there were 3 factoring companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at EUR 16.8m at the end of 2024, while their profit reached EUR 0.4m. In 2024, the transaction volume was dominated by classic factoring totalling EUR 72.5m (87.5% of the transactions), as were receivables, with classic factoring amounting to EUR 10.4m (85.0% of the receivables) at the end of the year.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.