Investment Officer Luxembourg

This year’s overview of the most read articles on Investment Officer Luxembourg demonstrates that readers are highly attracted to articles about financial regulation and supervision of investment funds and management companies in the Grand Duchy.

In 2024, the investment landscape will evolve with fixed income markets rebounding, equity markets diversifying beyond the ‘Magnificent Seven’, and private markets favouring operationally robust mid-market firms.

Investment Officer has previewed 2024 with specific articles looking at fixed income, at equities and at private markets:

Several European funds have emerged in recent years that use religious principles as a basis for their investment decisions. Impact criteria, exclusions and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors play a dominant role when it comes to determining the content of these portfolios, as does direct guidance from churches.

Next year, private market investors should focus on mid-market companies with low debt and potential for operational improvement, says Dirkjan Schuiten, head of private markets at ABN Amro. This approach contrasts with the less reliable strategies of financial engineering and betting on rising valuations, which are unlikely to yield desired returns in the near future.

The European Commission has cleared the acquisition of Belgium’s largest private bank Degroof Petercam by CA Indosuez, a subsidiary of the Paris-based Crédit Agricole group.

The Commission said on Monday that it concluded that the proposed concentration does not raise competition concerns given the limited market positions of the companies involved.

A recent update of a Luxembourg sustainable finance report notes that two-thirds of the assets under management of Luxembourg UCITS – 2.8 trillion euros at the end of June 2023 – report under one of the two designations set out by European rules for green investing. However, mention of investment-related greenwashing is conspicuous by its relative absence in the report.

This week’s overview of transfers, appointments, promotions and other people news includes updates from Better Finance, Ostrum Asset Management, Invesco and Columbia Threadneedle.

About 85 percent of Europe’s asset management activity takes place in six countries: the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, data from Efama’s 2023 Asset Management Report shows.