Investing

Equity markets are still overvalued despite the deep declines we have seen this year. That is the view of Andrew Balls, CIO of Pimco, world’s largest active bond investor. According to him, both a mild recession, and falling earnings expectations are not yet sufficiently priced in.

The ISM Manufacturing Index is not only an important indicator of future growth, but is also highly correlated with market returns. What many investors overlook: it’s not just correlated with equity returns, but also bonds.

By using indicators that say something about the direction of the ISM Manufacturing Index to define different ISM scenarios, you can derive implied returns for each asset class.

Global investment solutions provider Russell Investments on Thursday announced the launch of a Luxembourg-domiciled global unlisted infrastructure fund. The open-ended private markets fund aims to invest in opportunities that address the need for new infrastructure solutions to meet evolving social and economic demands. 

The Luxembourg Private Equity Association hosted its Insights conference on fundraising and investor relations on Thursday. It became clear that, in order to remain competitive, Luxembourg needs to lower its minimum entry threshold for investors in private equity without waiting for new European Union AIFMD rules to emerge.

Many investors are on the fence about re-entering the badly battered bond market when the bottom may be near. The smart ones will want to enter the market well before interest rates hit their peak, says Michael Gitlin, partner and head of fixed income at Capital Group.

Marguerite II, a pan-European infrastructure fund in Luxembourg, said it has acquired full ownership of Red de Calor de Cuenca (RCC), a project company which will build and run a a greenfield heating network in Cuenca, a Spanish city in the Castilla La Mancha region.

An extrapolation of Preqin’s global projection for private capital demand to Luxembourg suggests the grand duchy’s private and alternative investment market could add more than 1000 billion euro in private capital during the coming years.

Over the past 12 months, the yield on corporate bonds has been as much as minus 22 per cent. As a result, the effective yield on investment grade corporate bonds has now risen to 5.5 per cent at a duration of just over 6 years. This is in line with the return earned on investments according to the tax authorities, on which 31 per cent tax has to be paid this year.

At the same time, most banks still do not give interest on current account balances, but that is not subject to tax these days.

For Zurich-based Serpentine Ventures, a venture asset manager, Luxembourg is a key gateway to reaching international investors. The firm is leveraging the grand duchy’s regime for alternative investment funds for four of its venture capital funds that nurture Swiss startups.

Panic appears to rule the world’s most liquid financial market, the foreign exchange market. The Bank of England had to announce emergency measures on Wednesday to stop the pound’s dump. Behind the panic is a systemic crisis: a dramatic fall in European currencies against the dollar, an analysis shows.

Not only the pound, but also the euro has been failing against the dollar for more than a year. Falling currencies are eating into investors’ returns and specialists believe that their devaluation against the dollar will not bottom out for the time being.