Administration d’actifs

Luxembourg’s financial sector continues to rely heavily on outsourcing services. A survey, conducted by PWC among 342 top executives and operational heads in the financial sector, found that a remarkable 90 percent of them engage in outsourcing activities.

Geneva-based investment house Edmond de Rothschild has agreed to sell its third-party asset servicing operations based in Luxembourg to Apex Group, a global financial services provider. This move is a part of Edmond de Rothschild’s strategy to narrow its focus on private banking and asset management, divesting from certain non-core business activities. 

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

German investors have been internationalising their property portfolios for years. At the same time, foreign investors are increasingly drawn to the German real estate market. Though the momentum has fluctuated, the overall trend persists. As one of the leading fund domiciles in the world, Luxembourg has firmly established itself as a key player in this internationalisation.

The future of supervisory reporting by investment funds - Luxembourg is home to some 14,000 of them - is embedded into a firm’s technology infrastructure.

One example of this development is taking shape in Luxembourg, where a local data firm that was acquired by a London-based fund data specialist last year is building a one-stop solution that lets fund managers track the distribution of their funds in multiple countries and report to the relevant supervisors by pressing a single button. 

Average fees paid to directors of investment funds in Luxembourg and Ireland are down significantly when compared to last year in what appears to be a reflection of a shift in the way that funds reimburse their directors, according to a new report issued on Monday.

Luxembourg-headquartered Alter Domus, an international provider of tech-enabled fund administration, private debt, and corporate services for the alternative investment industry, has appointed Michael Janiszewski as its new Chief Operating Officer.

Apex Group on Thursday said it is  poised for expansion after having secured 400 million dollar in term debt, aiming to boost liquidity and further organic and inorganic growth. The firm, financially backed by a group of four venture capital firms, is known to be vying for an initial public offering some time in the coming years.

Depositary banks, including some at Caceis, have been grappling with dissatisfaction for years due to the ever-complicating «settlement machinery» requiring constant fine-tuning. «With each legislative tightening, our processes must adapt,» state Rinke Visser and Sikko van Katwijk from Caceis Netherlands.

Francesca McDonagh will join Frankfurt-headquartered Universal Investment Group as its new group chief executive officer from January, the firm has announced. McDonagh, 48, previously served as group chief operating officer at Credit Suisse and CEO at Bank of Ireland.

With 29 new funds registered, last month was the best September in three years for new Raifs issuance, data analysis by Investment Officer Luxembourg shows. Raifs are Reserved Alternative Investment Funds. In Luxembourg these vehicles in recent years have gained significant international traction among those active in private assets such as credit, real estate and private equity.