Lenneke Arts

Geopolitical tensions, inflation uncertainties, and high equity market valuations are driving a trend towards investing in gold.

Recent issues in the private credit market have heightened the vigilance of Dutch asset managers regarding deals financed by private debt providers.

Amsterdam-based investment firm Van Lanschot Kempen is keen to expand its market share in Belgium.

Whisky asset manager Scotch Whisky Investments until recently focused mainly on private investors. That market continues as usual, but bringing in former ABN Amro director Eran Habets as CEO means more focus on selling to independent asset managers and family offices. And abroad, first and foremost Belgium.

Despite declining valuations in private equity, Schroders Capital’s European private equity chief Richard Damming remains confident, dismissing concerns as mere industry “noise”.

In the face of fluctuating private equity valuations, Damming reassures that they remain undeterred. “You sell a company at the price you want to sell it for, and otherwise you don’t sell it,” says the head of Schroders’ European PE branch. 

The ambition of the financial sector to further democratise private markets is not yet convincingly reflected in practice.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s (GSAM) recent marketing of the Private Market Eltif demonstrates that the firm is keen to broaden the horizon for private investors. Giving the retail segment access to its 420 billion dollar alternatives-platform is not a mere experiment, but part of a “big, bold commitment,” according to Barry Fricke, GSAM’s Head of EMEA Alternatives Distribution Wealth Management. Goldman Sachs AM now wants to launch a new private market Eltif every year.

Family offices are looking to allocate more assets to fixed income in the coming years, as well as illiquid alternatives such as private equity (secondaries). About a third of wealthy families already invest in digital assets, even if it is usually a very small percentage.

This is according to an analysis of two surveys on the investment plans of family offices. Both Goldman Sachs and UBS recently published results on this.

Banks are keen to invest more in biodiversity but experience difficulties in finding suitable products. The concept of biodiversity is stretched and providers do not make sufficiently clear what goals they are pursuing and how these are measured. 

Sustainability regulations require asset managers and banks to take into account a number of factors on which they must also report. A large part of it deals with biodiversity, giving the topic great attention from banks and asset managers as well as from providers. 

Less than a month after the European parliament adopted its updated regulation for Eltifs - the European long-term investment funds - the new framework may be showing its first cracks. The lack of liquidity remains problematic, and that makes it unsuitable for private investors.