Lenneke Arts

71 percent of ESG investment funds do not meet the global climate targets set out in the Paris Agreement. Moreover, many explicitly named “climate” funds still appear to invest in fossil fuels. Of the large providers, State Street, UBS and BlackRock in particular achieve poor scores, according to the researchers. 

Five years after he was scouted for ADO’s youth academy in the The Hague, Netherlands, 16-year-old Michael Vakalopoulos was asked if he wanted to play in the Greek national team. It brought him a professional football career, with employers such as ADO, PSV, Vitesse and SC Veendam. At Pimco, the 31-year-old account manager can still put his energies into the company football team that he plays 5-a-side football with.

Swimming 3.8 kilometres, cycling 180 kilometres and running a marathon. Tim Soetens (photo) of Allianz Global Investors participates in triathlons alongside his position as head of Benelux business development and wants to finish within 10 hours for the first time. He was speaking one day before his next race in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

In 1993 he made a serious plan to participate in the Olympic Games of ‘96. Emiel van den Heiligenberg (pictured above raising his hands) trained 14 times a week, hours a day. Until, among other things, a hernia threw a spanner in the works. The competition rowing of those days still plays a role in his function as head of the asset allocation team of LGIM.

ABN Amro is broadening the options for clients who want to invest in private equity. For the first time, the bank is offering a basket of private equity managers, in addition to the already existing single manager funds. Meanwhile, the bank is getting ready for the next step: private markets as a structural part of the strategic asset allocation. 

“Data from external parties are insufficiently transparent to be able to rely fully on in ESG investments. Moreover, the scores of these parties are often based on information and performance from the past. Particularly in the case of sustainability, a tool must help investors look ahead.”

As a result of the Covid pandemic, trends and themes that previously seemed to be the preserve of millennials have now found their way into older generations. Even if we are gradually getting back to normal life, it is a movement that will not be easily reversed.

“A better distribution within the traditional investment portfolio is 78 percent shares and 22 percent bonds,” DWS’s head of multi-asset Bjorn Jesch said. “Possibly with the addition of alternatives, to reduce the portfolio risk.”
 

At ABN Amro, clients have shifted to a higher-risk investment profile. Whereas previously the most popular profile invested mainly in bonds, this has now changed to a profile investing 55 per cent in shares, explained Richard de Groot of the bank an interview with Fondsnieuws as part of its series on asset allocation amid the current low interest rate climate. 

Although it was never a conscious decision, the fact that the DWS real estate fund Europe II is managed by three female fund managers has become “a thing,” notes Jessica Hardman of DWS. “There is still a lot to be done if the real estate and investment industry is to be open to the fact that you can pursue a career path in the industry regardless of your colour, gender or origin.“