Raymond Frenken

The Luxembourg stock exchange has announced a new move to expand its cooperation with Macao, one of China’s Special Administrative Regions. The bourse said it will offer trading in securities listed on the Chongwa (Macao) Financial Asset Exchange Co. Ltd., commonly known as MOX, on its self-regulated Euro MTF market.

In a dawn raid on Friday, Luxembourg judicial authorities searched for documents of two holding companies controlled by US hedge fund Elliott Management in relation to last year’s 1.2 billion euro sale of Italian football club AC Milan. Although it has formally closed, the sale is still contested by a third Luxembourg holding company, Blue Skye Financial Partners, which owned a small minority stake in AC Milan and which claims it has fallen victim to fraud under Luxembourg law.

Bermuda-headquartered financial services firm Apex Group, one of the largest management companies in Luxembourg, has agreed to acquire MJ Hudson PLC, a troubled London-listed provider of management company services in Ireland and Luxembourg, for about 40 million pounds (45.2 million euro), less than half its value at the time of its 2019 IPO.

If there’s one thing clear from recent months, it’s that Luxembourg is placing a major bet on the future of Eltifs, or European Long Term Investment Funds. The EU’s adoption of a major upgrade of the Eltif regulation is opening the doors to private markets for high-net-worth investors and wealth management clients.

Rising interest rates and the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse have led to a paradigm shift in private equity and venture capital. Reji Vettasseri, lead portfolio manager at Swiss private finance group Decalia, believes investors now need to to be innovative with emerging strategies, carefully selecting ‘small cap’ firms to invest in instead of fleeing to the safety of larger ventures.

Luxembourg’s financial supervisor CSSF this week presented its priorities in the area of sustainable finance. The regulator said it strives to “accompany the transition of the financial sector and its players in a proactive way”. It has defined separate priorities for banks, for asset managers and for investment firms.

Although there’s consensus on clouds hanging over private real estate markets while some investors here still face a rough ride, instability in the market for Real Estate Investment Funds, known as REIFs, - unlike the European Central Bank - is not seen as an immediate systemic threat to the real economy, according to real estate specialists in Luxembourg and London.

Downgraded green credentials for hundreds of investment funds and an increasingly polarised political US debate on ESG investments are shaping the current industry debate on sustainable finance. Joachim Nahem, sustainability expert and chief executive at Oslo-based Position Green, notes the emergence of a new concept that has taken over from greenwashing: green hushing. 

The global market for Exchange Traded Funds, better known as ETFs, is projected to more than triple in the next ten years to reach 30 trillion dollars, says Brown Brothers Harriman in a new study it releases today. Developments in this market are closely watched in Luxembourg, Europe’s second-biggest hub for ETFs. ETFs are increasingly finding their way into institutional portfolios, concludes BBH in its annual survey of 325 institutional investors, financial advisors and fund managers from the US, Europe and China.

European private equity investors have become more cautious during recent weeks following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. Appetite for alternative investments however remains strong while some investors embrace the ‘dislocation’ in the market as an opportunity. “If you’re selective, you can even do better than expected.”