Max Severijns

While the price of gas shot through the roof last week, it seems that a real energy crisis can be avoided in the short term now that Vladimir Putin is going to supply extra gas. Nevertheless, the unexpected turbulence in the energy market is reason for ING to reassess its investment strategies. It is a perfect storm.

With the upcoming COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the pressure on pension funds to green their investment portfolios increases. At the same time, the debate on fossil investments is intensifying. But what is the best roadmap: exclusion or engagement? Pension fund PME chooses option 1, while asset manager PGIM explicitly favours option 2. 

PME: disinvestment logical

The search for yield is causing a rotation among institutional investors from classical investments to better yielding alternatives, such as hedge funds. Insurers such as AXA expect hundreds of billions in ultra low or negative yielding government bonds to be exchanged for other investments in the coming years.

With the Chinese government cracking down, foreign investors are reassessing their exposure to China. It is a balancing act between capitalising on the lucrative opportunities the country offers and protecting portfolios against the apparent arbitrariness of the government. The attentive investor can nevertheless hold on to a common thread.

Research by French think-tank Edhec shows that ETFs that are so-called “Paris aligned” take the climate score into account for no more than 12% of the factors underlying stock selection. Climate scores, at best, play second fiddle.

“Due to the search for yield, a “shut up and take my money” sentiment is starting to emerge in the world of high-yield corporate bonds. Investors would be wise to be more cautious in allocating money to the high-yield markets. It is dangerous to stay in the highest-risk segment with the idea that things will go well for another six months”, according to Sander Bus, managing director and co-head of the credit team at Robeco, speaking in an interview with Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication.

The pandemic has put the resilience of the big city in the spotlight. The need to protect cities against the challenges of this century remains as great as ever. Schroders is therefore investing in real estate projects in the cities of the future. They are looking for players who push the boundaries and take the most drastic steps towards “net zero”. How? In this case, with a python script and a big database.

A majority of nearly 3,000 risk managers admit that the pandemic has led to more careless due diligence checks and a more sloppy handling of the Know Your Customer (KYC) principle. In addition, 71 per cent of respondents report that cybercrime is harder to contain because of remote working.

At the moment, the healthcare sector is still underdeveloped digitally, while the world population is getting older and more chronically ill. Nevertheless, this sector is also slowly but surely embracing the Internet of Things. Henk Grootveld sees this as a reason to invest in digital healthcare.

Accommodative central bank policy, an ageing Europe and the exorbitant increase in debts make interest rate hikes in Europe extremely unlikely in the short term. This increases the risk of negatively-yielding bond portfolios for pension funds and insurers. Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s Dutch-language sister publication, asked three investment specialists for their views.