Investment Officer

While interest rates in the bond market are rising uninhibitedly, the stock market may be in a dead-cat bounce, or a “sucker-rally”. Some market specialists do not trust the rally and declare equities “a lost cause”. In terms of allocations, the traditional appeal of a 60-40 portfolio appears to make a comeback now that the ‘earnings yield spread’ between stocks and bonds is narrowing.

Asset manager Robeco on Wednesday won the award for best asset manager in Morningstar’s Luxembourg Awards for Investing Excellence in 2023. The firm also won the new award as best asset manager in sustainable investing.

Dutch-based Robeco, with assets under management of approximately 200 billion euro, since 2016 is fully owned by Japanese financial services conglomerate Orix. With its awards Robeco beat competition Vanguard, J O Hambro, BNP Paribas and Candriam.

Funds managed by M&G, Schroders, Candriam and Cartesio on Wednesday emerged as four respective category winners in the Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence 2023 in Luxembourg.

A total of 69 signatories representing the Luxembourg financial sector on Wednesday marked International Women’s Day 2023 by signing the newly launched Luxembourg Women in Finance Charter, seeking to improve gender diversity in the grand duchy’s financial centre.

The initiative, supported by the Luxembourg finance ministry, seeks to achieve greater gender balance and inclusivity across the Luxembourg financial services industry. Finance minister Yuriko Backes will act as the charter’s patron.

Investment research firm Morningstar is set to announce the winners of the 2023 Morningstar Awards for Excellence in Investing in Luxembourg. 

A total of 12 funds were nominated in the categories global equity fund, best Europe equity fund, best Euro bond fund and best Euro allocation fund. Morningstar also has selected six nominees for its Best Asset Manager and its Best Asset Manager Sustainable Finance awards.

The winners will be announced at a Luxembourg ceremony on Wednesday evening at 20:30 local time.

A survey conducted among 300 investment institutions, including asset managers, asset owners and insurance firms, has found a mixed understanding of digital assets among investment professionals. The results point to different levels of readiness to using digital assets and investment technology.

Apex Group Ltd, a Bermuda-based global financial services provider with a well-established record of acquiring companies, has announced its successful acquisition of Brazil’s BRL Trust DTVM after obtaining full regulatory approval, according to a Tuesday press release.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator the CSSF announced last Friday afternoon that it had fined trust and corporate services provider Intertrust (Luxembourg) S.à r.l. nearly 200,000 euros at the end of last November for several failings. This included meeting professional obligations for IT risks as well as internal governance, the professional secrecy obligation and for required communication to the regulator. 

Responsible investment policies at two thirds of the world’s major asset managers, representing some 60 trillion dollars in assets under management, fall short of their objectives, leaving the firms with “serious gaps” in their practices, according to a report published by British NGO Shareaction.

A Luxembourg roundtable initiative that brought together public and private sector stakeholders with an interest in the economic recovery of Ukraine has evolved into becoming UkrainePlatform, a think tank focused on encouraging investments and developing the country’s economy.