Eltifs will exceed 200 in 2025 in Europe

The volume of European Eltifs could settle between EUR 65bn and EUR 70bn by the end of 2027 and at least 80 new products would be ready to make their debut in Europe in the next 12 months after a record number of new Eltifs came to market in 2024. Private equity, infrastructure and private debt dominate the offering. These are some of the highlights of the latest survey of a large number of asset managers and distributors conducted by rating agency Scope.

Currently 150 Eltifs from 74 different asset managers are registered in Europe. Last year, 55 were launched, following a record 27 new Eltifs in 2021. Of the 150 Eltifs, fund managers have raised capital for 133 of them. Scope estimates the total volume of these funds at EUR 20.5 billion at the end of 2024, an increase of 38% (EUR 5.7 billion) compared to the end of 2023. The increase includes EUR 4.4 billion of invested capital and EUR 1.3 billion from the conversion of three previously existing products.

The sharp increase in the number of products last year is due to the Eltif 2.0 regulation, which has been in force since 10 January 2024 and has simplified the market for suppliers and distributors. The finalisation of the technical regulatory standards on 26 October 2024 provided additional impetus as they touch on important elements such as liquidity management. The new rules allow Eltifs issued as evergreen structures to allow investors to regularly enter and exit funds under certain conditions and not tie up savings over long durations. This is an element that is prompting many banks to make concrete plans to sell Eltifs this year than before.

Investing the most in this sector to date have been French investors with EUR 7.5 billion by the end of 2024. They are followed by the Italians with 3.5 billion euros. In third place is Germany (EUR 2.8 billion) followed by Spain (EUR 1.4 billion). But Italy and Germany dominate the Eltif market for products accessible to private clients: 25% of the volume of all Eltifs open to private investors is attributable to Italy and 21% to Germany.French investors also lead the way in terms of capital invested in 2024, with 35% of the volume invested. Germany is in second place with 25%. Italian and Spanish investors each account for 13%.

In terms of asset classes, the volume is relatively evenly distributed between private debt (33%), infrastructure (26%) and private equity (26%). Real estate and mixed strategies make up the remaining share. The weighting of real estate has increased significantly since 2023 due to the conversion of two previously existing products into Eltif . Most of the surveyed providers and distributors see increased investor interest in private equity and infrastructure despite the slight advantage of the private debt segment. The reasons? The high return expectations for private equity and the clarity of infrastructure investments.