Investment Officer

Alternative investment funds last year took a bigger slice of the Luxembourg pie, a new study said on Wednesday. In terms of assets under management, alternative funds accounted for more than a third of the total last year, compared to a quarter a year earlier.

The data stems from the latest edition of the Observatory of Management Companies, published annually by PwC Luxembourg.

Fund management companies in Luxembourg registered some 22 new reserved alternative investment funds (Raifs) in April 2023, according to publicly-released data updated on 15 May. This development brings the total for this year so far to 128. Considering only the first four months of the year, the total number was down 20 per cent from last year during the same period.

Financial services provider Apex Group on Tuesday said it has closed its acquisition of the data and analytics division of troubled London-based asset services provider MJ Hudson Plc. The deal includes part of MJ Hudson’s business in Luxembourg. The acquisition of the firm’s regulated business units remains remains to be closed as it is still subject to regulatory approval, Apex said. 

Europe’s top financial supervisor on Tuesday said it has opened up a consultation on the draft technical standards for European Long Term Investment Funds, or Eltifs, to collect input from the industry. Interested stakeholders have until 24 August to provide input.

The standards, known formally as the ‘RTS’, shed more light on the redemption policies and matching mechanism for Eltifs. The consultation also asks the industry to comment on the proposed disclosure requirements for costs of Eltifs. 

While those European investors still in doubt about the importance of ESG are becoming increasingly bogged down in a rearguard action, U.S. states are increasingly passing anti-ESG laws. “If this becomes federal policy, I would underweight the U.S. in the portfolio,” said Gaya Herrington,  a sustainability researcher and advisor to the Club of Rome.

The latest edition of the Bank of America Global Fund Manager Survey shows that fund managers are still overweight equities while their expectations of future economic growth have come down considerably.

Indeed, the chart below shows that fund managers have never been so pessimistic about growth. Not during Covid and not during the Great Financial Crisis. The ‘mismatch’ between expectations and positioning is extreme.

Technical standards with which sustainability information must comply are becoming clearer as far as the European supervisory authorities are concerned. They published a comprehensive consultation paper with a high level of detail and many calculation formulae on the level 2 implementation of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Directive, or SFDR. The industry can propose amendments up to 4 July.

Europe’s top regulator for securities and financial markets on Wednesday said it believes there is a need for EU-level legislation to make sure investors do not bear costs that are considered excessive, unnecessary, or unreasonable when they put their money in investment funds.

European Fund Administration, the Luxembourg-based asset services unit of Frankfurt-headquartered management company Universal Investment, on Monday said it is rebranding to “efa”, as part of its integration journey into Universal Investment.

Since its inception in 1996, European Fund Administration has expanded its services and client base in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Its original acronym, designed as a symbol for quality, trust, and reliability in the fund industry, will cease to be an acronym and become the name of the company, the firm said.

The European Court of Auditors, the EU’s top body designed to improve financial management in the European Union, has criticised the European Central Bank for failing to properly supervise the 110 largest financial institutions in the Eurozone.