Investment Officer

IntReal Luxembourg SA, a subsidiary of property-focused third-party AIF manager IntReal, has added Stephan Schilken, 48, to its management team as a managing director. He will serve in the position of conducting officer and brings to the job decades of experience in Luxembourg’s investment fund and financial sector.

Luxembourg’s leading financial sector associations, together with the supervisory authorities and the government, are about to launch a public campaign that seeks to elucidate the general public in the grand duchy on sustainable finance. 

In particular, the campaign aims to make clear that sustainable investing is more than just environmental ‘green finance’ and that ESG investing also relates to social issues and the governance of companies.

Financial services group Apex Group Ltd on Monday announced it has launched a new ESG database and benchmarking platform for private markets. 

Apex’s ESG data service is run as a ‘Data as a Service’, or DaaS, platform and draws on information from more than 400 GPs, 1,500 portfolio companies in more than 45 countries since 2019. It includes proprietary and verified data that can be used for benchmarking.

Marion Le Morhedec is global head of fixed income at AXA Investment Management. For this edition of IO’s Portfolio Update podcast she spoke with Investment Officer’s Max Severijns.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF on Friday brought attention to a warning from the grand duchy’s cyber security authorities which said an “alarming situation” has been created because more than 500 computer servers have not yet been updated with a critical software patch for Microsoft Exchange servers.

While the smokescreens on the greenwashing battlefield have yet to lift, a new headache file has presented itself in financial markets: the impact of artificial intelligence on market participants and regulators. On that front, transparency is “zero”, European Markets Authority Esma has concluded in a new study on artificial intelligence in EU securities markets.

European Ucits and AIF investment funds experienced net outflows of 278 billion euro last year, the biggest level since the financial crisis of 2008, according to industry statistics compiled by the European Fund and Asset Management Association, Efama.

Denis Panel has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of Sycomore Asset Management, a unit of Generali Investments, the firm announced on Tuesday.

Pamela Goldminz has been named as head of the Dallas officer at financial services provider Apex Group, the firm announced on Tuesday. The appointment follows organic growth and acquisitions in the Texas market, it said.

Apex Group, active in Luxembourg as a leading AIFM and asset services firm, has become one of the largest independent fund services providers by headcount in Texas, it said.

KPMG Luxembourg on Thursday said its revenue increased a steady 8 percent last year, buoyed by a “significant” market growth in private assets. The firm reported revenues of 276 million euro for last year.