Investment Officer

Ansgar John Brenninkmeijer, the fifth-generation descendant of the Dutch C&A family, read a popular investment book, founded a fund without any prior experience, had it blessed by a daytrading priest, and has been outperforming “virtually all indices” since.

The google search for Ansgar John Brenninkmeijer yields remarkable results. At a young age, he received treatment in a psychiatric institution. He was arrested twice for resisting COVID-19 measures, and he spent a short time in a police cell.

Asset owners are going back to basics en masse. Institutional investors are writing large new mandates for global and developed-market equities, wrote bfinance in a quarterly report published this month. The agency, which advises more than 500 pension funds and other institutional investors worldwide, is also seeing increased interest in investment-grade strategies.

Switzerland-based investment house Lombard Odier has reported a 4% increase in assets under management since the end of December 2022, reaching 198 billion Swiss francs of assets at the end of June 2023. The result is due in part to “solid contributions” due to new net inflows in its private clientèle and asset management units, the firm stated.

At the same time, the firm says it is pursuing strategic investments in its operations. At the end of June 2023, the total assets of the Group’s clients reached 308 billion Swiss francs.

Cork Gully, a restructuring firm based in London, has announced the opening of an office in Luxembourg. The new location aims to expand its services in advising and managing challenged and tail-end investment funds, working as either sub-advisors or replacement fund managers. The firm cited increased interest in its services.

This week’s overview of transfers in the fund and asset management sector includes appointments at FE fundinfo, Allianz Global Investors and Capex.com.

Liam Healy 

Liam Healy (photo) has been appointed as chief executive officer at FE fundinfo, a specialist in  investment fund data and technology, effective 4 September 2023. FE fundinfo is the parent company of Fundsquare, a Luxembourg provider of fund distribution services.

The latest quarterly report from the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (Afme) highlighted diverging trends in the European Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) finance landscape during the second quarter of 2023.

European ESG bond and loan issuance dropped by 23.9 percent year-on-year to 151 billion euro in the second quarter. The quarter also saw an 11.1 percent decrease compared to the first quarter. 

Monex Europe S.A., a Luxembourg-based specialist in commercial foreign exchange, announced the appointment of Percy Golergant as executive director for Luxembourg. He will work alongside Carlo Biondi, who has held the role of executive director since March 2021.

Golergant and Biondi will co-direct the Luxembourg office’s operations. This includes streamlining its IT solutions, enhancing risk management services, and driving sales in the market.

A positive performance in global financial markets stemmed net capital outflows in Luxembourg during the month of June, leaving the grand duchy’s investment funds with a net positive balance of 35.191 billion euro at the end of the month, according to data from financial supervisor CSSF.

The increase represents the balance of negative net capital investments - or outflows - of 15.302 billion euro and of the positive development of financial markets amounting to 50.493 billion euro.

The Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) on Wednesday launched a new toolkit to support financial professionals in navigating the complex maze of the European Union’s sustainable finance regulation.

German bank Commerzbank on Tuesday said it has taken a significant step in its asset management business by spinning off its active asset management segment into a new stand-alone boutique called Yellowfin Asset Management GmbH.