Asset Managers

With Europe and the US entering recession in the last half of this year, Asia, despite a series of severe lockdowns, is facing a brighter future, according to MainFirst portfolio manager Frank Schwarz, in an Investment Officer BE  interview, who adds that his favourite Asian investment theme is semiconductors.

Schwarz manages the newly launched MainFirst - Megatrends Asia fund. This equity fund focuses on Asian investment themes such as digitalisation, consumption, automation and decarbonisation.

Providers have been storming into the rapid growth of private equity as an asset class, reflected in the national and international growth of feeder funds and fund of funds. However, these product groups are associated with high pricing and common misalignments, according to Koen van Mierlo and Emile van Thiel of Bluemetric, in a recent interview with Investment Officer NL. 

After Thursday’s announcement of Apex Group’s acquisition of Sanne Group plc enabled the firm to position itself as a global, top-tier independence service provider, servicing nearly 3 trillion US dollars in assets, Investment Officer Luxembourg asked Renaud Oury, Apex’s Chief Revenue and Data Officer to speak about the significance of the deal, particularly for Luxembourg.

Concerns about rising inflation, monetary tightening, supply chain problems, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strict Covid measures curbing the Chinese economy dominated investor sentiment in the first half of 2022. The speed and intensity of the sell-off that hit fast-growing, highly-rated, and loss-making companies in particular was relentless.

Three things come into play when forecasting future inflation. First of all, the difference between supply and demand. At macro-economic level, an estimate is often made of the output gap, or the tightness of the labour market. In addition, the current inflation level also plays a role. Inflation is reasonably inert, well-anchored and responds slowly to changes. It takes time for a different inflation level to sink in with consumers and producers.

Global financial services provider Apex Group Ltd announced on Thursday the close of its acquisition of Sanne Group plc, a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate services.

The 55 million euro high security, high value storage facility formerly known as the Luxembourg Freeport – now known officially as the High Security Hub (HSH) – was back in the headlines recently as auditor BDO Audit drew attention to what it termed  “significant uncertainties” about the firm’s ability to continue its business activities “on a going concern basis,” in its corporate audit report of HSH’s balance sheets, filed to the Luxembourg Business Register in mid-July.

A recent study conducted by Boston-based State Street has found evidence of “green shorting”,  a phenomenon in financial markets where investors borrow shares of companies with a weak sustainability profile and sell them in the hope they can buy them back cheaper when the price declines.

Swing pricing “has become common market practice” in the Luxembourg fund sector to manage liquidity at times of volatility in the market, according to a recent industry survey by the Association of Luxembourg Fund Industry.

Global asset managers are concerned that the European Union’s regime for corporate sustainability reporting does not fully match their needs and that it could risk making Europe less attractive for international investors as the rules remain to be aligned with an alternative international approach that is gaining traction in international accounting discussions in the IFRS community.