Mike Gordon

Macroeconomic pressure on Luxembourg’s real estate sector has translated into a lower volume of property sales, which is hurting the businesses of those who sell real estate properties – real estate agents. They are now screaming bloody murder. 

“The market is suffering,” said Jean-Paul Scheuren of the Luxembourg real estate chamber, speaking of the real estate market generally. “Everybody is like on hold, on hold, and also the demand is on hold.”

Fidelity International, via Luxembourg, is launching a new climate impact fund leveraging the need for improved performance of existing commercial real estate buildings in Europe. Investment Officer sat down with Aymeric de Sérésin, Fidelity’s director of European real estate investments.

Luxembourg’s reputation for excessive house prices is facing macroeconomic clouds looming over European and international housing markets. However, several country-specific factors will likely minimise the price drops seen in other markets, including tax measures, cheaper housing across the border, and a small development community.

High hopes for crypto’s ability to revolutionise the financial world were dealt a harsh reality check with the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange last year. With Luxembourg having early on placed a bet on crypto, some have suggested it could suffer reputational damage. New regulation including the European Union’s MiCA regulation however may offer a way to do crypto safely, Thursday’s debate at Swissquote’s Luxembourg event heard.

Swissquote Bank Europe has become the first Luxembourg bank to be able to offer depositary services to digital asset investment funds, having obtained CSSF regulatory approval to act as a depositary bank for Luxembourg-domiciled funds along with its status as Vasp, or regulated Virtual ASset Provider.

Investors concerned about uncertainty need to understand that it is fundamental to investing, but humans have a difficult relationship with it. Aswath Damodaran, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a prolific writer and social media publisher, is an expert on corporate valuation, finance and portfolio composition and is known as the “dean of valuation.”

In the Luxembourg market for Reserved Alternative Investment Funds, Dublin-headquartered investment services firm Waystone has emerged as the biggest issuer by a landslide, analysis of 2022 data by Investment Officer Luxembourg shows. The list of most active Raif issuers also includes Carne Global - the number one issuer in previous years, One Funds and Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe.

The analysis showed that Luxembourg was home to a total of about 2125 Raifs at the end of last year after adding some 472 new funds during 2022.

Infrastructure has become one of the topics we pay frequent attention to. It’s remarkable how often it comes up. But of you think about it, the global need for infrastructure investment, the attention paid by the political classes, the importance of the asset for the pension manager have combined to make this once dusty-seeming topic seem of the highest importance. The fact that it has the allure of being inflation-resistant has brought additional attention in these troubled times.

Tokenisation has served as the “acceptable face” of blockchain, with its association with cryptocurrency, with its slightly tawdry reputation. While critics say that using blockchain over a simpler tech solution involves spending unnecessary money, time and effort, others say it opens up interesting possibilities and can actually bring you benefits. Many innovative companies embed the technology in their business plan. Luxembourg has made a tremendous push in this area, including introducing new supportive legislation.

Cube Infrastructure Managers takes pride in its a progressive approach to infrastructure investing. The firm has raised some four billion euro since 2007. Its portfolio has featured Eurotunnel and various green transition investments. Today it actively seeks out companies in order to improve their environmental footprint.