More than 32 asset management companies and over 70 mutual funds operate in Bulgaria at present, data of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) show. The funds managed a total of 683 mln leva as at the end of March 2008, as Profit.bg already wrote.

But what are the fees investors pays for the purchase of units, for their redemption by the fund or for management?

Many of the mutual funds adopted a new strategy recently, revoking the fees for the purchasing of units, while others do not charge fees for the redemption of units. The management fee (calculated on the basis of the average annual value of the assets of the fund) ranges from 0.3% to 5%, a check up conducted by Profit.bg shows.

Standard Investment International Fund, Aktiva High Yield Fund and Somoni Progress charge the highest management fee of 5%, while investors in Standard Investment High Yield Fund pay 4.5% management fee. Zagora Finacorp Balanced Fund, one of the new collective investment schemes, has also set the fee at 4.5% but does not charge a fee at present.

The average management fee in Bulgaria stands at 2.5%, data of Profit.bg, compiled courtesy of the collective investment schemes, shows.

Elana Dollar Fund (0.3%), Raiffeisen (Bulgaria) Money Market, UBB Platinum Bond Fund (0.75%) and Elana Money Market Fund (0.8%) all charge under 1% management fee. In other words, the funds that provide lower return levy lower management fees as well.

The fee is set at 1% by KD Bond Bulgaria, Sentinel– Rapid, Alpha Index Top 20, DSK Standard, BenchMark Fund 1 and Elana Eurofund.

CCB Asset Management will revoke as of May 7 the fee for the purchase of units in the CCB Leader and CCB Active funds and will reduce the purchase fee for CCB Garant to 0.25%. At the same time the redemption fee for the first two funds stands at 0.5%, while no fee is charged for CCB Garant.

One could invest free of charge in Aktiva Balanced Fund, Elana Money Market Fund, TBI Treasure, UBB Balanced Fund, UBB Premium Equity Fund, UBB Platinum Bond Fund , Ug Market Maximum, Aktiva High Yield Fund, Sentinel Rapid, as well as in the three funds managed by Standard Investment.

Invest Classic, Elana Eurofund DSK Standard and Elana Dollar Fund command purchase fees of 0,1% each, while Aurora Capital Balanced Fund and Aurora Capital – Global Commodity Fund charge the highest purchase fees of 4%. BenchMark Fund-4 and BenchMark Fund-5 levy a 3-percent fee for the purchasing of units.

A total of 24 of the collective investment schemes do not charge a fee for the redemption of units, while Aurora Capital – Global Commodity Fund, Ug Market Maximum and Alpha Selected Shares command the highest redemption fee of 2%.

We have to mention the fact that the costs for the purchase and the redemption of units depend on the volume of the investment and if the sum is bigger the costs of the investors are going down.

*The article is not a recommendation for buying/selling units.