Strategies managed for institutional investors with exposure to Russia or Ukraine reduced allocations to those markets during the quarter ended March 31.
According to data provider eVestment's database of institutional investor allocations, calculated for Pensions & Investments, 82% of strategies reporting an exposure to Russia in the first quarter of 2014 had reduced their allocation over the three months ended March 31.
Of those strategies with exposure to Ukraine in the first quarter, 60% had reduced their allocation since the end of the fourth quarter of 2013.
Peter Laurelli, vice president and head of research at eVestment, said in an e-mailed comment that this shows that institutional strategies are moving away from Russia faster than from the Ukraine, which he said makes sense since Russia was a more significant holding in portfolios prior to the crisis that continues across the region.
Using figures from strategies reported fully in both the first quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2013 as a proxy, eVestment also calculated asset declines on allocations to Russia across the entire data set. Figures show a monetary decline of 14.8%, to $84.5 billion, during the quarter ended March 31. During the quarter ended Dec. 31, exposure fell 10.4%. The company said allocations had fallen by about 24% during the six months ended March 31.
However, Ukraine is “a different picture,” Mr. Laurelli said. There was a more significant decline in exposure over the three months ended Dec. 31, of almost 25% to $7.7 billion. However, despite more strategies reducing the percentage of their portfolio allocated to Ukraine, overall exposure to the country actually increased for the three months ended March 31, by 8.5%, or about $600 million.
However, over the six months ended March 31, data show institutional investor exposure to Ukraine has fallen 18.9%, or $1.9 billion.
