Asset Managers

The Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, one of the world’s largest property investment funds, in April accepted 29 per cent of 4.5 billion dollars worth in redemption requests. The fund told investors on Monday that it decided to fulfil 1.3 billion, less than a third, of these requests to sell.

First-quarter net income at Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, fell 7.5 percent to 300 million euro when compared to the same period last year, “in line with the unfavourable evolution of the market,” the company said on Friday.

The firm nevertheless referred to a “strong performance” as a result of the diversification of its activities and its operational efficiency and good cost control.

The European Union is taking a major step forward with its Green Deal initiative, and investors are now being encouraged to invest green faster. The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) has been designed to play an important role in this effort by providing transparency into how investment firms and managers integrate sustainability risks into their decisions. But it is struggling in a confused industry. 

Pictet Group has announced the appointment of Raymond Sagayam as the 47th Managing Partner in the 218-year history of the firm, effective 1 January 2024.

Sagayam joined Pictet Asset Management in 2010 as head of total return fixed income to build and expand the firm’s long-short credit capabilities. His investment and management track record led him to be appointed chief investment officer of fixed income and a member of its executive committee in 2017. 

Deutsche Börse AG on Thursday made an offer of 3.9 billion euro in cash for Danish investment software and data provider SimCorp A/S. The offer is endorsed by SimCorp’s board.

The German stock exchange said it plans to integrate SimCorp into its existing data and analytics business and that the acquisition will allow the creation of a “full scope” front-to-back investment management solutions segment. 

Equity investors may be underestimating the potential consequences of a miscalculation of the Federal Reserve interest rate path. The market is already pricing in a Goldilocks scenario of stable economic growth and low inflation. It could be a costly misjudgment.

Institutional investors expect greater transparency when investing in alternative assets, mostly with risk management in mind, according to a new survey by Clearwater Analytics.

According to a poll of 254 institutional investors, representing over $10 trillion in assets under management, the two key benefits to achieving greater transparency in alts should be better risk management (72 per cent) and a better understanding of performance (54 per cent).  

Decarbonisation is a trend expected to continue among investors during the coming years. One out of 10 fund selectors in Europe is already completely avoiding so-called “carbon emitters” or traditional carbon-emitting energy companies. Twice as many plan to do so in the next two to three years.  

Banks are keen to invest more in biodiversity but experience difficulties in finding suitable products. The concept of biodiversity is stretched and providers do not make sufficiently clear what goals they are pursuing and how these are measured. 

Sustainability regulations require asset managers and banks to take into account a number of factors on which they must also report. A large part of it deals with biodiversity, giving the topic great attention from banks and asset managers as well as from providers. 

The Luxembourg government clarified its application of the reverse hybrid rule in the EU’s second anti-tax avoidance directive (ATAD-2) last November, in 2022. It made clear that tax-exempt investors are exempt from the application of the reverse hybrid rules and clarified when they do apply to other investors. With the “quite helpful” clarification bringing simplification in one area, the quest for certainty has moved to related issues, such as allocating the potential tax burden if a given investor triggers it.