Investment Officer

Financial supervisor CSSF is putting on the thumbscrews. It has imposed individual financial fines on a total of seven managers and directors at two specialised investment funds in Luxembourg. The fines were issued because they sent “incomplete information” to the supervisor. It is the first time such fines were issued under a 2007 law that governs these funds. 

JPMorgan Asset Management plans to convert a number of active mutual funds in the US to passive ETFs next year. The asset manager is not alone. Globally, passive is starting to catch up with active.

Swiss-based real estate investment manager Empira has sold a 16,000 square metre property project in Vienna for an undisclosed amount. The property had been held through a Luxembourg Reserved Alternative Investment Fund.

The Zug, Switzerland based firm had only bought the property two years ago. In a statement, Empira spoke about a “successful sale at attractive terms… exactly in line with the investment approach of this product”. 

Luxembourg-based Cube Infrastructure Managers has finalised the purchase of the Czech activities of German energy firm MVV Energie AG. The transaction has been done through the “Cube Infrastructure Fund III” brownfield reserve alternative fund, under the corporate form of Cube III Energy CZ s.r.o. Financial details were not disclosed.

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange has admitted China International Capital Corporation as a new trading and listing member with immediate effect. CICC will enable the indirect trading of shares listed on Shanghai the Shenzen stock exchanges via the Luxembourg bourse.

Quintet sees little cause for celebration when the world rings in the new year, the Luxembourg private bank said in its 2023 outlook. The year ahead will be one of two halves: once central banks stop raising interest rates, a new cycle of uneven, global growth will begin. High-dividend and low-volatility equities may provide an opportunity to reduce portfolio risk, the firm’s investment officers said.

The Federal Reserve last night raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.25-4.5 percent, rounding off a cumulative tightening of 425 basis points this year.

Looking ahead to 2023, emerging market funds specialist East Capital has positioned itself for a period of “fat and flat” returns in the belief that 2022 has likely marked the end of a lucrative super cycle fuelled by ultra-low interest rates and abundant liquidity. 

Total assets under management in Europe amounted to 28,400 billion euro by the end of September, reflecting a decline of about 12 percent from year-end 2021 levels as bond and stock markets fell amid rising inflation and interest rates and slowing economic growth following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Apex Group said it has been appointed by Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management to service its Australian fund. Apex, a Bermuda-headquartered global firm with a strong presence in Luxembourg, has been appointed to provide fund administration and transfer agency services to the Kayne Anderson Rudnick Global Small Cap Fund.