Asset Managers

Switzerland is preparing to step up competition with Luxembourg as a fund domicile for alternative investment funds. The industry, however, is not convinced that the Swiss alternative can fully match the international success of Luxembourg Raifs.

From next month, the Swiss will allow management companies to create a new type of fund known as L-QIF that will compete with the successful regime for Reserved Alternative Investment Funds, or Raifs, first made possible in the Grand Duchy in 2016.

More than two thirds of fund selectors see active fund management as key to outperforming in the current year, a reflection of its growing importance in uncertain markets, the latest Natixis 2024 Fund Selector Outlook Survey shows.

The survey uncovered a strategic pivot among wealth managers, who over the past decade have largely favoured passively managed index funds. However, 45% of fund selectors attribute the outperformance of passive investments to a decade of artificially low interest rates and minimal inflation, conditions that are changing. 

Amundi, Europe’s biggest asset manager, on Wednesday confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Alpha Associates, a Swiss-based specialist firm in private equity, private debt and infrastructure investments, boosting its presence in the European private markets sector. Financial details were not disclosed.

Those who make money in Luxembourg’s real estate sector are still in shock after the arrival in this country of the long-ago predicted 2023 global real estate correction.

Experts from Schroders, Robeco, and Franklin Templeton advise maintaining a cautious stance on the valuation of US equities, highlighting that key interest rates are likely to decrease more slowly than market expectations.

Annually, Schroders, Franklin Templeton, and Robeco host their Investment Forum in Brussels. At this event, specialists from these three asset management firms shared their projections for the newly commenced financial year and offered insights on strategic portfolio positioning.

Not only the US commercial real estate market is struggling with historically low prices due to interest rate hikes and the trend of working from home. Europe, too, is in trouble.

Luxembourg funds continued their recovery from a slight decline in October 2023 by amounting at year-end to 5.285 trillion euros, up 5.1% over the past year,

Only one in five management companies in Europe are publishing a legally required statement detailing how investment decisions may negatively affect sustainability factors. This encompasses aspects like environmental, social, and employee matters, human rights, and anti-corruption.

The Bank of England (BoE) this week reiterated its concerns about the risks of higher interest rates and limited data disclosure in private credit markets. Harvey Schwartz, CEO of The Carlyle Group with some 380 billion dollars under management, believes those concerns are exaggerated.

Investment specialists are singing from a common hymn book in predicting the world is on a path to lower inflation and treasury yields, though they carefully call attention to possible transitional effects, Investment Officer heard while covering two recent investment events in Luxembourg hosted by J. Safra Sarasin and Capital Group.