Investment Officer Belgium

Investors in evergreen funds apparently did not fully grasp what they were getting into when they entrusted their capital to these “semi-liquid” vehicles investing in private markets. After Blue Owl, two large private credit funds managed by Blackstone and Blackrock were hit last week with a surge in redemption requests.

Oil prices can swing by tens of dollars within hours, as happened this week amid the war surrounding Iran. Yet the headline oil price is only one signal from the commodity markets. A further ten indicators reveal where pressure in the energy system is truly building.

In a fund market that is becoming increasingly fragmented between European requirements, rising regulatory pressure, and the growth of private markets, large offshore firms can no longer ignore Luxembourg. For Mourant, historically established in Jersey, Guernsey, and the Cayman Islands, opening an office in the Grand Duchy two years ago was not merely a geographic expansion. It was a strategic repositioning.

With euro stablecoins and a digital euro, Europe wants to counter the looming dollarization of the European economy. In consumer payments, the sovereignty of the euro is already under pressure, the European Central Bank warns.

Within one hundred hours, American and Israeli forces struck nearly 2.000 targets in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei and dozens of senior officials were killed. It is the largest American military operation in the Middle East since 2003. The initial market reaction was remarkably muted, but the oil price tells a different story.

Investors are increasingly focused on what the war with Iran could mean for the global economy. The surge in oil prices is reviving fears of stagflation, as higher energy costs threaten to push inflation higher while economic growth comes under pressure.

Former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warned that Europe risks losing its remaining seats in the Group of Seven as the continent’s economic weight continues to decline in a rapidly shifting global order.

I recently came across an interesting study about the Fama-French factors, those widely used risk factors that underpin how we evaluate investment performance. The findings should matter to every (institutional) investor.

Even before stock market trading in March had really gotten underway, we already knew this month would end up in the history books. You also have to be particularly creative now to write a column that does not touch on what is happening in the Middle East. So here is the expected topic, but with a twist.

Investors continue to shun EUR cautious allocation funds as fixed income regained popularity.