October 2024 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of October 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,321,855 members, i.e., 4,410 (0.19%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 78.0% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 17.8% and 4.2% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 6,864 new members, 6,517 (94.9%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 2,454 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in October amounted to EUR 133.1m (0.6% of net assets at end-September). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 48.0m (0.2% of net assets at end-September), rising by EUR 13.4m compared to the previous month.

At the end of October 2024, net assets of MPFs amounted to EUR 22.7bn, rising by EUR 228.7m (1.0%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 0.9% for category A, 0.7% for category B and 0.2% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 17.0% for category A, 12.3% for category B and 5.5% for category C. Year-to-date returns reached 11.3% for category A, 7.8% for category B and 2.8% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.7% for Mirex A, 5.4% for Mirex B and 3.4% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of October, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 13.8bn (60.8% of total assets), making their share decrease by 0.3 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 0.1 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 23.0% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.2bn) at the end of October 2024. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.3%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 8.7% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.3bn (10.2% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase by 0.5 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 3.9% of the assets, or EUR 889.4m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of October 2024, 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 412,459 and 49,148 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in October 2024 amounted to EUR 10.2m (0.7% of net assets at end-September), increasing by 0.3% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 4.4m, increasing by EUR 0.1m (3.1%) compared to total payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 69.9%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 24.0%, while those made due to death accounted for 6.1% of total payments in October. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.5m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 0.9m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 0.5m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In October 2024, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 10.7m (0.8% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.4bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -0.1% to 1.1%, returns on an annual basis ranged from 4.0% to 17.8%, while year-to-date returns ranged from 2.6% to 11.3%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 56.2% 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 the monthly basis by 0.2 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.4 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.9 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In October 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first ten months of 2024 amounted to EUR 1.6bn, of which EUR 271.3m (17.0%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 1.3bn (83.0%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.4%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (18.8%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.3%). The value of claims settled in the first ten months of 2024 reached EUR 1.0bn. EUR 368.0m (35.4%) of this amount related to life insurance, while EUR 672.1m (64.6%) 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 (39.7%), insurance of road vehicles (21.8%), other property insurance lines (9.4%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.0%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 62.0m in October 2024, increasing by 122.1% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 1.9% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 48.3bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 26.3bn, bonds to EUR 18.8bn, money market instruments to EUR 3.0bn and ETFs to EUR 73m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (0.3%) was recorded by CROBEXindustrija, while CROBEXtransport recorded the largest monthly decline (-8.6%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX and CROBEXtr also recorded a monthly increase (of 4.2%). The CROBIS bond index recorded a 0.5% monthly increase, while CROBIStr rose by 0.7%. HT d.d. was again the stock most traded in October, with its turnover amounting to EUR 10.4m (26.9% of the overall trade in stocks in October) and a 9.1% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FIRMS

In the third quarter 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 decreased by 3.1% on a quarterly basis, the value of assets managed by credit institutions decreased by 2.5%, while the value of assets managed by investment fund management companies rose by 4.5%. On an annual level, there was an increase in the value of assets managed by investment firms (26.1%) and investment fund management companies (12.0%), while credit institutions recorded a decrease (-7.4%). In September 2024, total assets under custody of investment firms stood at EUR 1.0bn, a 0.8% increase on a quarterly basis, while the assets under custody of credit institutions increased by 1.7%, reaching EUR 20.0bn.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In October 2024, there were 115 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 3.0bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 72.4m or 2.4% compared to the previous month. Total monthly payments of all UCITS in October were positive, amounting to EUR 67.1m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 45.3m), bond funds (EUR 19.1m), equity funds (EUR 5.2m), balanced funds (EUR 0.04m), and feeder funds (HRK 0.009m). Negative net payments were recorded by funds categorised as “other” (EUR -2.6m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 28.2% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of October, funds categorised as “other” accounted for 25.6%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.4% and 9.3% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In October 2024, positive asset-weighted average monthly returns were recorded only by money market funds (0.2%), while negative asset-weighted average monthly returns were recorded by: equity funds (-0.2%), balanced funds (-0.3%), bond funds (-0.4%), funds categorised as “other” (-0.4%) and feeder funds (-0.4%). At the end of October 2024, the asset-weighted average annual returns stood at 25.4% for equity funds, 13.9% for feeder funds, 11.3% for balanced funds, 7.0% for funds categorised as “other" and 4.8% for bond funds. Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 196.0m at the end of October, (an 8.9% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 9.0%.

LEASING COMPANIES

At the end of the third quarter of 2024, there were 15 leasing companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at EUR 4.1bn, an 18.9% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. At the same time, the total profit recorded by leasing companies rose by 8.9% on an annual basis, reaching EUR 54.2m. The outstanding contract value of active contracts in the operating lease segment rose by 21.3% at an annual level, while in the finance lease segment it increased by 20.4%. The value of newly concluded contracts in operating and finance lease rose by 8.6% and 16.8% respectively at an annual level.

FACTORING COMPANIES

At the end of the third quarter of 2024, there were 4 factoring companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at HRK 21.3m at the end of September 2024, while their profit reached HRK 0.6m. The transaction volume in the first three quarters of 2024 was still dominated by classic factoring totalling EUR 60.8m (88.9% of the transactions), as were receivables, with classic factoring amounting to EUR 11.6m (83.1% of the receivables) at the end of the third quarter.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.