Asset Managers

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, on Tuesday addressed investors in his annual letter, focusing on three main issues: the need to reshape the pension and retirement system, the national debt crisis, and the imperative for sustainable investments.

Despite explicitly avoiding the term “ESG”, Fink emphasised the need for investments that consider the environmental impact, albeit through a pragmatic lens that balances decarbonisation with energy security.

Vanguard has edged past BlackRock to secure the top position in Broadridge Financial Solutions’ 2024 Fund Brand 50 (FB50) rankings for the United States. Vanguard also has emerged as the biggest riser among the FB50 rankings in Europe, where it now is a top-10 fund brand.

From Paris, Natixis Investment Managers champions active management against passive giants like BlackRock and Vanguard, despite criticism over missed passive investing opportunities.

Some 40 new Eltif funds, enabling European retail investors to put their money in private markets, are understood to be in the pipeline, due to enter the market in the coming months.

When investors buy a company’s share, conventionally, they hope for the stock value to climb and maybe pay dividends. But there’s another way to make money on your shares – lend them to other investors to use for their own purposes, for a fee. This hasn’t been previously possible for most investors in Luxembourg. With help of a fintech, one bank has committed to make it happen.

Better ESG scores of listed companies do not necessarily lead to higher equity returns. Contrary to the claims of numerous asset managers, this link cannot be scientifically proven, according to researchers from Erasmus University and Boston University.

The European Long-Term Investment Fund (Eltif) stands out as a valuable and potentially crucial instrument for financing Europe’s energy transition, according to the chief executive of the Luxembourg Fund Industry Association (Alfi), Serge Weyland. In an interview, he underscored the Eltif’s unique ability to channel new capital into projects with long-term sustainability objectives and said made clear that he would welcome EU-level fiscal stimuli for this specific type of Eltif.

Amundi on Monday announced the expansion of its global equities offering with the launch of the Amundi Prime All Country World Ucits ETF, now listed on Xetra. The Paris-headquartered firm said its new fund aims to offer investors cost-efficient, highly-diversified equity exposure across both developed and emerging markets, boasting the lowest management fees for an all-country ETF on the European market at 0.07%.

The EU’s retail investment package will come up for a vote at the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the evening of Wednesday, 20 March.

The European Long-Term Investment Fund (Eltif) regulation, initially introduced in 2015, has been revamped to Eltif 2.0, entering into effect in January 2024. This revised regulation is poised to significantly influence the landscape of private credit investment in Europe, according to Michael George, lead portfolio manager of M&G’s Corporate Credit Opportunities Eltif Fund.