News

Luxempart, a Luxembourg-based investment and private equity company, on Wednesday said it has acquired a 8.4 percent stake in Nexus AG, a German-based publicly listed hospital software provider in Europe through a capital increase of 72.5 million euro.

Dividends worldwide rose by 11.3 percent in nominal terms in the second quarter of 2022 to a historic quarterly record of 544.8 billion dollars, the latest Global Dividend Index report by Janus Henderson shows. 

If the strong US dollar and other underlying factors are taken into account, underlying growth is even stronger at 19.1 percent. Some 94 percent of companies surveyed either paid out more in the second quarter or kept payouts stable.

The European Central Bank needs to review its special programmes that make available cheap money to banks in Europe in order to become more effective in fighting inflation, Banque de France governor François Villeroy de Galhau told central bankers at their meeting in Jackson Hole.

“Walking the narrow path” is an expression among central bankers about striking a fragile balance between reining in inflation and not plunging the economy into the ravine. Friday showed how difficult that task has become. 

With stock market indicators showing rapid growth, what is happening? Is the bear market ending or is this just a regular bear market rally that will soon end? Some way we might be facing a recovery, others say that it’s just hopeless optimism.

Pauline Grange (Columbia Threadneedle) emphasises the opportunities that currently exist in the market to take advantage of European efforts to improve energy autonomy in Europe. 

As we while away the warm – even hot – summer months in the Grand Duchy, it’s on many people’s minds that winter is on its way. And that means we go back to burning gas. While official sources show that Luxembourg doesn’t import much Russian gas, we all pay the going market rate.

Forty years ago this week the bull market started in the United States. Not just any bull market, but the biggest bull market ever. Despite the crash of 1987, the dotcom graveyard, the attacks of 11 September 2001, the Great Financial Crisis and the Covid pandemic, this bull market continued to rise, fuelled by structurally falling interest rates, higher valuations and sharply rising profits.

The Dow Jones bottomed forty years ago on 12 August 1982 at 777 points, the same level as in January 1964. 

Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest, on Thursday posted higher-than-expected earnings thanks to rising prices but warned that it sees risks in inflation, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in China.

The company posted EBITDA earnings of 5.16 billion dollars in the second quarter, up from 5.05 billion in the period a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected earnings of 5.09 billion.

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.