Asset Managers

Some predict technology will undermine the rationale behind the investment fund. Others see it driving greater sophistication, and a narrowing of the gap between the asset manager and the wealth manager. Yet the message is clear: although Luxembourg can congratulate itself on recording €5trn assets, it must be sufficiently agile to adapt.

Amundi has entered into exclusive negotiations with Société Générale for the acquisition of Lyxor for a total cash consideration of €825m, or €755m excluding excess capital, Amundi announced on its website on Wednesday.

Growth in the Asian stock market no longer comes from big tech companies. The best growth opportunities now lie in young, smaller technology companies and in the rapidly emerging healthcare sector, says Albert Kwok, manager of the PGIM Jennison Emerging Markets Equity Fund.

There’s no reason to worry about the recent rise in interest rates and the threat of inflation. The important thing is to select companies that somehow have, or will have, the wind in their sails. Banks, tech companies and companies that will benefit from the infrastructure boom are particularly attractive now, according to Joakim Ahlberg, portfolio manager of the North American Stars Equity fund at Nordea Asset Management.

Le marché belge des produits durables connaît actuellement une croissance plus rapide que le marché néerlandais, qui est déjà plus établi. La gestion thématique est une branche en forte croissance dans tous les domaines, et le Luxembourg peut profiter du Brexit, car de nombreuses sociétés de gestion s’y sont installées.

Wall Street is greenwashing finance. It has turned sustainable investment into little more than a PR stunt, and this undermines the fight against the global climate problem, according to Tariq Fancy, a former BlackRock chief investment officer.

Small caps have shown stellar performance this year, helped by an improved economic outlook. Valuations have risen, so are there still opportunities for investors? We asked Jan Willem Berghuis, head of small caps at Kempen Capital Management.

In recent weeks, the €1.2 billion Kempen Global Smallcap fund has taken profits on the biggest risers, adjusted weightings and spent time on new investment ideas, says Berghuis.

iShares has won the 2021 Morningstar Luxembourg Award for Best Fund House Overall. It’s the first time a passive asset manager wins the overall award.

According to Morningstar analyst Ronald van Genderen, the award means iShares has simply produced the best risk-adjusted returns after fees across the equity and fixed-income range in recent years.

The Amundi European Equities ESG Improvers Fund differs from other ESG funds in the sense that it does not necessarily invest in ‘expensive’ ESG leaders. ‘We try to identify the ESG leaders of tomorrow that have only relatively recently started to make progress on ESG’, says lead portfolio manager Suzanne Keane.

The AIFMD may not be perfect but it is pretty good, so please don’t reform it after the current on-going review by the Commmission. This was the uniform message from a discussion at the ALFI European Asset Management conference on 16 March.