Investment Officer

Senior private banker Alexandre Schmitz has left Degroof Petercam Luxembourg to join the Luxembourg operation of Lazard Frères Gestion, a French asset management firm which has offered wealth management services in Luxembourg since 2021.

Schmitz will join Lazare’s Luxembourg team as “director – senior private banker”.

“Alexandre’s arrival marks our desire to strengthen our presence in the local market,” said Julien Thibault-Liger, managing director of the firm in Luxembourg.

Britta Borneff, a former managing director at Fuchs Asset Management, has been appointed as the new director of events, communications and business development at the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry, Alfi. 

Borneff’s professional career in Luxembourg started in 1996 with Schroders where she worked in marketing and client relationship roles for more than a decade. From 2007 to 2021 she worked as head of sales and marketing at Waystone in Luxembourg. From October 2021 she served at Fuchs, a Luxembourg investment firm,

Of the European assets flowing into ETFs last year, a higher proportion went to trackers with ESG labels than trackers without that sustainability feature. Sustainable fixed income ETFs were particularly popular in Europe.

Banks, not investment funds, are responsible for financing the most carbon-intensive activities, the European Central Bank has concluded on the basis of experimental new indicators for sustainable finance. “The companies they finance produce relatively more emissions in their business operations to achieve a given level of revenue,” the ECB said when presenting the new indicators on Tuesday.

European infrastructure investment firm Marguerite has announced the launch of a platform allowing investors to put their money towards building large-scale photovoltaic solar projects. The firm, based in Luxembourg and Paris, also announced its plans to invest up to 60 million euros in such projects across Europe.

Inflows into alternative investment funds in Europe rebounded in November when compared to massive outflows during October, as inflows for Ucits funds fell significantly, according to data released by the European Fund and Asset Management Association, or Efama.

Apex Group on Monday said it plans to acquire the Irish depositary business of Bank of America Custodial Services (Ireland) Limited, also known as Bacsil, through European Depositary Bank, one of its Luxembourg-based subsidiaries.

Bacsil is a depositary solution for onshore and offshore funds servicing a multitude of blue-chip clients consisting of Ucits, alternative investment funds and offshore depo-lite fund structures, across a wide range of strategies. Based in Dublin, the Bacsil business provides depositary services to client assets of 71.4 billion dollars.

New York-based Blackstone, also present in Luxembourg as a CSSF-regulated AIFM, has raised a record 22.2 billion dollars in commitments for its Strategic Partners IX fund, one of two such vehicles in its inaugural continuation fund strategy under the Strategic Partners GP Solutions label.

China celebrates New Year on Sunday, marking the start of the year of the rabbit, a symbol for longevity, peace, prosperity and hope in Chinese culture. The year could provide some interesting investment opportunities, China specialists at Comgest and Mainfirst Asset Management said in separate notes to investors.

So which part of the financial services sector in Luxembourg contributes most in terms of added value to the grand duchy’s economy? It’s the banks, not the investment funds, says a new study published this week by Luxembourg For Finance and Deloitte.

In 2021, the banking sector remained responsible for the most significant contribution, representing over half of the financial services industry’s added value, with the fund industry following at just under 31 percent, the study said.