Raymond Frenken

Although its overall market share contracted slightly, Luxembourg last year held on to its number one spot among Europe’s top 10 investment hubs for both Ucits and Alternative Investment Funds, with a market share of 26.8 percent, compared to 27 percent that was reported for the previous year, according to the latest annual reported released by the Association for the Luxembourg Fund Industry, or Alfi. Ireland’s share of the pie increased to 18.6 percent last year from 18 percent reported for 2020. 

At Apex Group, present in Luxembourg also with management companies such as FundRock and LRI Invest, each new acquisition and partnership announcement marks a waypoint on its long-term strategic journey. That journey still has some way to go, Apex’s founder and CEO Peter Hughes said in an interview with Investment Officer. “In terms of what the potential is, half-way certainly feels about right.”

It’s not difficult to compare today’s era to the 1970s. An energy crisis, a hot war, a cold war, persistent inflation, soaring interest rates, rising house prices. Even Abba, with its flared trousers, is performing again, albeit as a hologram. For investors, a rerun of the 1970s would require a profound rethink. 

Family wealth managers are more and more challenged by demands placed on them by digitalisation, increasingly stringent regulations and complex cross-border taxation requirements. It’s an environment that encourages some wealthy families to join forces with others and enter their investments into a Multi-Family Office business, moving away from the traditional single-family office. “It’s the correct answer to the market.”

Is private equity, like Amundi’s Chief Investment Officer Vincent Mortier recently said, a Ponzi scheme? Or is there another reason to fear this asset class?

Luxembourg’s private equity business has experienced a boom in recent years as the Grand Duchy’s improved regime for alternative investments helped it benefit from strong growth in global private markets. For professional investors - family offices and pension funds alike - private markets have become an important asset class.

Pascal Blanqué, Chairman of the Amundi Institute and former Chief Investment Officer at Amundi, on Thursday said he believes that market thinking behind widening spreads among eurozone government bond yields poses a risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Hillary Clinton, former US State Secretary, took the stage on Friday at the 2022 Amundi World Investment Forum in Paris to share her views on some of the biggest geopolitical challenges that the world is facing today. “We are in a struggle between authoritarianism and democracy.”

European central bank policy makers will meet in Amsterdam on Thursday at the invitation of Klaas Knot, the Dutch central bank governor who is known for his hawkish approach to interest rates and his support of a 50 basis point rate hike in July. And: when will the ECB start discussing Quantitative Tightening, like the Fed?

Sustainable finance poses a compliance risk you can no longer afford to ignore, no matter whether you are green or brown. Offering green investment products without actually doing so can get you into serious trouble. Asoka Woehrmann, the chief executive officer at DWS, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm, can tell you all about it. 

Amid lingering fears of stagflation and a possible recession, investors are hard pressed to find opportunities in today’s markets, if any. Market experts at JP Morgan Asset Management believe that those willing to look at fundamental factors underpinning equities, also in Europe, can find ways to enrich their portfolios with some specific quality growth stocks if they know where to look.