Asset Managers

A recent European Central Bank study calling for a regulatory framework to address instability in the market for Real Estate Investment Funds, known as Reifs, has been downplayed by a growing number of real estate specialists contacted by Investment Officer in Luxembourg and London. 

The traditional private equity world has realised only in the past two years that creating products specifically for wealth and retail channels is going to be a huge area of growth over the next 10 to 15 years. Europe, said Tarun Nagpal, founder of S64 Capital Innovation, will be the “next frontier” in mainstreaming private equity for retail investors.

Although there’s consensus on clouds hanging over private real estate markets while some investors here still face a rough ride, instability in the market for Real Estate Investment Funds, known as REIFs, - unlike the European Central Bank - is not seen as an immediate systemic threat to the real economy, according to real estate specialists in Luxembourg and London.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Monday said it expects managers of Liability Driven Investment funds, also known as LDI funds, to maintain yield buffers set last year at levels introduced to make these funds resilient to the UK Gilts crisis.

Global asset manager Columbia Threadneedle Investments on Monday said it has appointed Jill Griffin to the newly created role of head of Luxembourg. She will report to David Logan, global chief operating officer.

The global market for Exchange Traded Funds, better known as ETFs, is projected to more than triple in the next ten years to reach 30 trillion dollars, says Brown Brothers Harriman in a new study it releases today. Developments in this market are closely watched in Luxembourg, Europe’s second-biggest hub for ETFs. ETFs are increasingly finding their way into institutional portfolios, concludes BBH in its annual survey of 325 institutional investors, financial advisors and fund managers from the US, Europe and China.

The impending climate crisis is claiming ever-more attention on the political level. Part of the solution to it will be to spend what’s estimated to be trillions per year on cutting and mitigating emissions. The ability of the financial industry to raise and allocate money has got the political classes’ attention. Former US presidential candidate John Kerry – now the United States’ first-ever special presidential envoy for climate  –  and Luxembourg financial minister Yuriko Backes on Wednesday discussed Luxembourg’s role.

This edition of IO Talks Luxembourg hears from the managing director at M&G in Luxembourg, Micaela Forelli, on the firm’s positioning in the European funds market, on private markets and Eltifs, on cost savings and how the firm’s redundancy programme at M&G group is affecting its Luxembourg business.

The data science revolution is sweeping the investment industry. Some firms are looking to create an in-house solution combining artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science. Picking the right data set, and separating the wheat from the chaff, is critical. 

This Luxembourg edition of IO Talks hears about the latest developments in the realm of legislation around alternative investment solutions, and in particular European Long Term Investment Funds, or ELTIFs, and what they mean for Luxembourg.